Rogers Behavioral Health is gaining more insight into the patient journey through a new data sharing initiative with payors.
While Rogers tracks inpatient readmission rates for its own hospitals, the organization had no way of knowing if patients readmit elsewhere within 30 days.
“The data sharing agreements are incredibly important partnerships, and are very unique in our field,” said Brad Riemann, PhD, chief clinical officer. “We can combine what we know collectively to improve patient outcomes, and that’s a powerful thing.”
Preliminary results show that readmission rates overall continue to go down with the use of Rogers’ standardized treatment for inpatient care and patient-reported outcome measures in addition to its emphasis on dose and continuation of the clinical pathway.
For example, according to one payor, of those patients who readmitted to treatment within 30 days at Rogers or elsewhere, 92% did not follow the clinical pathway from inpatient care to any lower level of care.
Furthermore, analyses show that completing the clinical pathway is crucial in helping reduce the likelihood of patients readmitting.
“Patients going from inpatient to partial hospitalization is important, but continuing inpatient to partial and then down to intensive outpatient care really seems to be helping patients not only make large improvements but also learn to sustain those gains for the long term,” said Jessica Cook, director of clinical effectiveness. 
Based on these results, Rogers’ goal is to increase the percentage of patients who follow the clinical pathway from inpatient care to residential, partial hospitalization, or intensive outpatient care.