How Automated Calls Can Significantly Improve Patient Follow-Up Initiatives

Authored by: Alyssa Kleinman, CipherHealth

Four years ago, the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) began and officially started penalizing hospitals for excessive 30-day readmission rates. Since then hospitals have begun implementing programs aimed at reducing readmissions, especially for high-risk patient populations. One of the most effective strategies for reducing readmissions is with follow-up calls to patients within the first 24-48 hours of discharge.

Follow-up calls to patients help determine if patients are experiencing issues and can significantly reduce bounce-backs to the emergency department. The challenge many providers face is having enough resources to call all discharged patients throughout the 30-day window and effectively resolve their issues.

Making Follow Up More Efficient

“Instead of hiring more staff members to call more patients, use technology that can call patients, ask relevant questions, and route issues back to providers.” Alex Hejnosz, Co-Founder of CipherHealth, said “Providers manually calling patients will only be able to call a small percentage of patients, whereas with a platform like Voice, staff members only call the 20% of patients with issues and know exactly what needs to be addressed before even picking up a phone.”

CipherHealth demonstrates the impact calling patients has on outcomes as well as experiences. For one large hospital, using the automated calls helps to educate new mothers about resources available to assist with breastfeeding, postpartum depression, and more. Tailored calls to CHF or COPD patients identify patients at-risk for an adverse event based on answers to questions related to their diagnosis. Once patients indicate they have an issue, hospital staff members are immediately notified and can call patients to assist and prevent potential adverse events.

“Every day we hear stories about how the Voice calls are helping save staff time, but more importantly Voice is allowing providers to help patients even after they leave the hospital. At the end of the day, that is the goal we are helping to achieve.” Stated Hejnosz.

The Importance of Early and Regular Follow Up

With a larger focus on keeping patients out of the hospitals, providers will need to proactively reach out to patients to ensure they are on the road to recovery. The 24-48 hours post-discharge window is when patients need to start taking medications, eating the right things, and acting upon their discharge instructions. Without technology to aid in the follow-up process, providers may be too late in reaching patients who have already been readmitted because they were unable to fill their prescriptions.

It is not only important to follow up quickly after discharge, but also critical to follow up often throughout the 30 days post-discharge. Patients may start gaining weight or stop taking their medications, two indicators of a potential CHF readmission. When providers frequently call patients, they are more likely to catch a potential adverse event before it occurs.

Without technology, calling patients multiple times throughout the 30-day window is nearly impossible. Even with centralized call centers, being able to dial, reach, identify and resolve patient issues is a longer process than simply calling back an engaged patient to resolve their issues. This is where automated calls can be a big help in reducing labor costs and in increasing the likelihood that adverse events will be prevented.

Don’t Forget to Personalize

Automated calls understandably cause red flags for hospital leaders. Robotic calls, too many calls, or calls that don’t triage back to the hospital all lead to poor experiences with patients. Look for technology that doesn’t just call patients after they leave, but one that adds personalized touches by using the voices from hospital staff members, making alerts easy to receive, and not using a 1-800 number.

Follow-up calls should have the goal of getting patients the help they need quickly and efficiently. Even if a patient doesn’t fit the criteria for a “typical high-risk patient”, they can still cause the same penalty when they are readmitting. This is why calling 100% of patients can be more effective in preventing readmissions compared to an analytics platform. By identifying issues as they arise and triaging the issues for resolution from hospital staff, providers are more likely to reduce readmissions and keep patients happy in the process.

To learn how follow up calls can significantly decrease the likelihood of a readmission, click here.