Atrium looks to digital tools to tackle hospital readmissions

Hospital readmission is a common challenge for health systems in the U.S. However, many are now looking to digital tools to help curb the rate of high-admission patients.

This year Atrium Healthcare won a HIMSS Davies Award of Excellence for its digitally enabled approach to addressing hospital readmittance.

“With 50 hospitals and a broad footprint, being able to identify individuals who are at risk and intervene, from a readmission standpoint, is not only a patient-care imperative, it has huge capital and financial implications,” Ruth Krystopolski, senior vice president of population health at Atrium Health, said during the Davies acceptance presentation, which was part of HIMSS20 Digital.

The team began investing in creating visibility across the population by working with Cerner to use the HealtheIntent platform.

Krystopolski said that the team started off small identifying potential patients that were frequently in the hospital. They started with a patient that she referred to as “Joe,” who had within the last few years racked up 1,500 hospital visit, and within a six-month time frame already had 120 visits. Joe had a number of conditions, including PTSD, anxiety, hypochondria and major depressive disorder.