Hospital Readmissions

Readmission rates have been dropping steadily, but links between rates and demographics could make it tough to make big strides

Two out of every ten New Jersey Medicare patients return to the hospital within a month of being discharged. This number is a significant reduction from over the past four years. Studies show that even though the number of readmissions is dropping, a significant change seems hard to achieve because of correlation between readmission rates and demographics.

Healthcare Quality Strategies Inc. released data that showed a drop in the rate of patients readmitted to hospitals in the state of New Jersey. The data was broken down by county and showed that 20 percent of patients return to the hospital within 30 days.

Last year nearly every hospital in New Jersey was penalized by Medicare for having too high readmissions.

Hunterdon County, which has the highest median income and the second largest non-hispanic white population in New Jersey has the lowest readmission rate, below 17 percent. On the other hand, Hudson County which is much more diverse and economically challenged is the county with the highest readmission at 24 percent.

The data shows a trend where better communication is implemented in the hospital and post-acute care facilities with the patients, even the counties with the higher readmission rates can lower their numbers.

After digesting the data the New Jersey Hospital Association knows that it still has a long way to go to ensure that every county has lower readmission rates regardless of diversity or economic situation.

For more information and the full article follow the link provided.

http://bit.ly/16jqRca

Written by Brandon Kassof

NP Associates Youtube Video Introduction

We recently created a video on YouTube explaining NP Associates and how we work. The NP featured in this video is Courtney Leach. The script writer is Shaina Sarna. The videographer and editor is Brandon Kassof. NP Associates will be creating more videos in the future. Please subscribe to our Youtube channel for future updates.

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MRSA Testing: Newer, Faster, Better

In Fight to Detect MRSA, New Tests and Techniques Challenge Labs

Methicillin is an antibiotic that was introduced to combat certain penicillin resistant bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus. Shortly afterwards a methicillin resistant strain of Staphylococcus aureus developed named MRSA. This is normally found in a hospital environment where people with lowered immune systems can pick up different strains of bacteria. In addition in the 1990's a strain of MRSA developed in people who were not associated with hospitals at all. This strain is called community acquired MRSA or CA-MRSA. 

MRSA Facts: 

• 95,000 cases of invasive MRSA infections occur annually in the U.S.

• MRSA causes 19,000 deaths each year

• 86 percent of MRSA infections are healthcare associated

• 14 percent of MRSA infections are due to community-acquired MRSA

• In 2012 it cost $3.2 billion to $4.2 billion to treat hospitalized MRSA patients

All this information is what laboratorians and researchers use to answer questions as to how to treat MRSA and how to stop its growth.


Setting up a System: One of the difficulties of MRSA is determining how to detect it. Some hospitals check every single patient they admit while others only check patients who are the most likely to acquire MRSA. In addition, different hospitals treat MRSA differently as well. The problem is that there is no surefire way to detect or treat MRSA so no one way is more correct that any other. New forms of detection are being implemented every day.

Detection: Last year, a British hospital utilized whole genome sequencing to halt a MRSA outbreak. This is the first time that DNA sequencing has been used in such a capacity. As technology advances these kind of practices can become more cost effective. There are many different tests that are conducted across the country to combat MRSA, each which provide answers in a couple of hours. Speed is your friend when working with MRSA because as soon as you can come back with a MRSA negative result you can start working on the actual problem that is facing your patient. Experts say that with continued developments on combating MRSA, a future strategy could involve a vaccine.

For more information and the full article follow the link provided.

http://bit.ly/10wGDvI

Written by Brandon Kassof