Geisinger Health Plan has worked hard to reduce their readmissions rate and they recently succeeded through their innovative monitoring program.  The company recently announced that their remote monitoring program which uses interactive voice response (IVR) and other telemonitoring aspects to help case managers decreased hospital readmissions by an impressive 44%.  Geisinger Health Plan members could see an overall change in care after discharge based on these results.

The Geisinger Monitoring Program (GMP) has proven to be productive as it uses a range of technologies for remote monitoring.  Telehealth AMC Health designed this system to increase the number of interactions patients have with care-givers after they are discharged from the hospital according to Chris Anderson’s article found on HealthCareFinanceNews.com.  The program was designed for two years to see if the use of IVR technology for some of the Geisinger Health Plan patients would decrease readmissions when compared to patients not receiving this additional care.

Joanna Sciandra, RN, BSN, director of case management and strategic planning with Geisinger Health Plan, points out that readmissions mostly happen within a week or two of being released from the hospital.  She’s encouraged that having some more interaction with the patient after discharge is proving to be an extremely valuable tool.  She says that from a case management standpoint, complex patients often times need that additional care.  A 44% drop in readmissions shows that the system works and could be implemented on a more permanent basis.  Money-saving patient interaction is a key aspect in bringing down health-care costs, but keeping the quality of care at an acceptable level.

Written by Sam Tabes

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