Payer-hospital collaboration to improve patient satisfaction with hospital discharge

Background: Brigham and Women's Hospital, in Boston, and its major health maintenance organization (HMO), Harvard Community Health Plan, collected data in spring 1994 which revealed that patients were less satisfied with hospital discharge planning than with other elements of care. Problem identification process: An interdisciplinary team, formed in November 1994 and composed of eight members from the hospital and HMO, used data from the hospital's Patient Satisfaction Survey, flowcharting, and phone interviews with patients to identify discharge planning-related problems. For example, follow-up contact with patients after discharge was erratic and no clear signal of the successful ''hand off'' of care from the hospital team to the community team existed. Improvement Cycle 1: Eighty-three percent of the payer's patients that received the improvement strategy developed by the interdisciplinary team-a concierge service-rated discharge planning as excellent or very good, compared to 63% of control patients. Improvement Cycle 2: Plan solutions/strategies for improving hospital discharge planning: The results of the team's Cycle 1 improvements provided information for the team to use in designing a second cycle of incremental improvement activity. For example, to address the lack of clarify about who was responsible for making decisions about discharge and follow-up care, the attending physician was designated the transition-of-care coordinator. Once all the improvements were implemented, Cycle 2 patients who received the intervention rated satisfaction with discharge higher (83% versus 73%) than the control group. Conclusions: Implications of hospitalwide implementation of discharge planning-related services attempted on one unit are being considered.