Some collaboration or sharing of patient information seems potentially useful, even if it is money motivating the sharing. Julie Bird reports:
Hospitals are looking to large drugstore chains, their vast databases and patient-outreach resources to help reduce hospital readmission rates.
With medication discrepancies doubling the risk of hospital readmissions, contracting with drugstores to monitor for prescription conflicts and follow up with patients is well worth the expense, healthcare researcher Jane Brock tells Colorado Public Radio.
Now that Medicare payments are at risk if too many patients come back within 30 days of discharge, hospitals have even more incentive to pursue drugstore partnerships.
Read more on FierceHealthcare. Of course, I’d feel a bit better if we didn’t read of so many cases where pharmacies improperly dispose of patient prescription records, but the concept of follow-up to discharge is a good one. I just wonder if patients are informed of this program and that their data will be shared while they are in-patient.