ABBOTT PARK, Ill. and DOWNERS GROVE,
Ill., Aug. 10, 2017
/PRNewswire/ -- Making sure people stay nourished in the
hospital has shown to help patients recover, and real-world
evidence confirms its cost benefits too. The research, published in
American Health & Drug Benefits journal and supported by
Abbott (NYSE: ABT), found that when
Advocate Health Care implemented a nutrition care program at four
of its Chicago area hospitals, it
showed more than $4.8 million in cost
savings due to shorter hospital stays and lower readmission
rates.3
Addressing malnutrition is a growing concern, as 1 in 3 people
enter the hospital malnourished or at risk of
malnutrition.1-2 Decades of research prove that
when patients are poorly nourished, it can impact their recovery,
including higher risk of complications (such as pressure ulcers,
infections and falls) and more frequent readmissions. Studies also
show that poor nutrition can cause increased costs of care and
longer hospital stays–with the average hospital stay costing nearly
$2,000 per day.4 As a
result, hospitals and health care systems, such as Advocate Health
Care, are looking at the value of nutrition to improve care and
help patients get back to living a healthier life.
Starting in 2014, Advocate Health Care implemented two models of
a nutrition care program for patients at-risk of malnutrition, and
the results from this study published in December 2016, found that doing so reduced 30-day
readmission rates by 27 percent and the average hospital stay by
nearly two days.5 To evaluate the cost-savings of this
program, researchers used a novel, web-based budget impact model to
assess the potential cost savings from the avoided readmissions and
reduced time in hospital. Compared to the hospitals' previous
readmission rates and patients' average length of stay, researchers
found that optimizing nutrition care in the four hospitals resulted
in roughly $3,800 cost savings per
patient treated for malnutrition.
"Value-based care means looking comprehensively at patient care
to identify gaps and opportunities for improvement," said
Lee Sacks, MD, executive vice
president and chief medical officer of Advocate Health Care. "The
study's findings demonstrate that modest changes in the way we care
for patients, such as ensuring patients are nourished during their
hospital stay, can have a big impact in reducing costs and
improving health outcomes."
"This research confirms that implementing nutrition-focused
quality improvement programs, like the ones at Advocate Health
Care, can help patients recover from their hospitalization faster
while also removing some of the burden of financial pressures
placed on health systems today," said Suela
Sulo, PhD, a health outcomes researcher at Abbott and lead
author of the cost impact study. "As providers, administrators, and
payers face added pressures from rising healthcare costs,
value-based nutrition interventions should be considered in all
hospitals across the U.S."
About the QIP Study:
A Comprehensive
Nutrition-focused Quality Improvement Program Reduces 30-day
Readmissions and Length of Stay in Hospitalized Patients,
published in Journal of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition in
December 2016, was a multi-site,
two-group, pre-post study to evaluate two nutrition Quality
Improvement Programs (QIP) at four Advocate Health Care
hospitals.
The study's primary outcome was 30-day unplanned readmissions,
with a secondary outcome of hospital length of stay. A total of
1,269 participants aged 18+ at risk of malnutrition were enrolled
between October 13, 2014 and
April 2, 2015.
The study was funded by Abbott, which had no role in data
collection or analysis.
About Advocate Health Care:
Advocate Health Care is
the largest health system in Illinois and one of the largest health care
providers in the Midwest. A national leader in population health
management, Advocate is one of the largest Accountable Care
Organizations in the country. Advocate operates more than 450 sites
of care and 12 hospitals, including two of the nation's 100 Top
Hospitals, the state's largest integrated children's network, five
Level I trauma centers (the state's highest designation in trauma
care), three Level II trauma centers, one of the area's largest
home health and hospice companies and one of the region's largest
medical groups. Advocate Health Care trains more primary care
physicians and residents at its four teaching hospitals than any
other health system in the state. As a not-for-profit,
mission-based health system affiliated with the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America and the United Church of Christ,
Advocate contributed $686 million in
charitable care and services to communities across Chicagoland and
Central Illinois in 2015.
Connect with us at www.advocatehealth.com, on Facebook at
www.facebook.com/AdvocateHealthCare and on Twitter at
@AdvocateHealth.
About Abbott:
At Abbott, we're committed to helping
people live their best possible life through the power of health.
For more than 125 years, we've brought new products and
technologies to the world -- in nutrition, diagnostics, medical
devices and branded generic pharmaceuticals -- that create more
possibilities for more people at all stages of life. Today, 94,000
of us are working to help people live not just longer, but better,
in the more than 150 countries we serve.
Connect with us at www.abbott.com, on Facebook at
www.facebook.com/Abbott and on Twitter @AbbottNews and
@AbbottGlobal.
References
|
1.
|
Coats KG et
al. J Am Diet Assoc. 1993; 93:27–33.
|
2.
|
Thomas DR et
al. Am J Clin Nutr. 2002; 75: 308-313.
|
3.
|
Sulo S et al. Am
Health Drug Benefits, 2017 ; 10 (5): 262-270.
|
4.
|
HCUP Fast Stats.
Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP). December 2016.
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD.
www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/faststats/national/inpatienttrends.jsp.
|
5.
|
Sriram K et al.
JPEN. 2016; 40(1):1
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SOURCE Abbott; Advocate Health Care