Health and Disability

In a pilot that included more than 350 chronic heart failure patients, a Philadelphia hospital was able to reduce its 30-day readmissions by 10 percent — a 40 percent improvement over baseline — by using email and text message reminders to get patients into follow-up appointments. Dr. Thompson Boyd, physician liaison at Hahnemann Hospital and Richard Imbimbo, the hospital’s CFO, spoke at HIMSS 2015 in Chicago about their 10-month pilot, which was expanded from an initial six-month pilot, with congestive heart failure patients.