Stamford Hospital only county acute care facility to avoid readmissions penalty

For the second year in a row, Stamford Hospital is the only acute care hospital in the state to receive no readmission penalty from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services”™ Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

The Readmission Reduction Program evaluates U.S. hospitals annually on rates of 30-day readmission among Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries. The current results assess readmission rates from 2015-2018 for six common medical and surgical conditions: heart attack, heart failure, chronic lung disease, pneumonia, coronary bypass surgery and total joint replacements.

Twenty-six of 29 Connecticut hospitals received penalties, while on a national level, 83% of hospitals evaluated by the program were penalized by an average of 0.7%. The maximum penalty is 3%.

Bridgeport Hospital received a 2.66% penalty, while that city”™s St. Vincent”™s took a 1.08% hit. Other penalties were incurred by Danbury Hospital (0.85%), Greenwich (0.56%) and Norwalk (0.38%).

“This recognition is another endorsement of the excellent care that we provide to our patients,” said Rohit Bhalla, Stamford Health vice president, quality, and chief quality officer. “It is a validation of the daily dedication of members of our care team, including physicians, case managers, social workers, and nurses. They strive to ensure that patients have been successfully treated, are on the way back to health, and do not need to be re-admitted.

“We have been very proactive in this area,” Bhalla said, “and our results are driven by a number of coordinated initiatives including a dedicated focus on care transitions from hospital to home, and enhanced readmission protocols.”