Readmission to the Hospital After Surgery

When a resident of New Mexico undergoes surgery for any type of medical condition, the last thing they want is to end up readmitted for a preventable problem. Unfortunately, this happens all too often. According to CBS News, 6 percent of people who had emergency surgery were readmitted within 30 days.

Healthcare Business & Technology provides the most common reasons patients end up back in the hospital after surgery:

  •       Infection
  •       Nutritional deficiency/dehydration
  •       Anemia/bleeding
  •       Venous thromboembolism
  •       Graft or prosthesis issues

Fixing this problem may require more than simple changes, but rather a movement in the culture and attitude hospitals have toward making mistakes. The focus should be shifted from the surgeon or clinician who made the mistake to the mistake itself, and the best way to prevent it from happening again. This requires full transparency when it comes to mistakes with the objective of avoiding further issues.

This comes through regular training to implement solutions and identify problems with the entire staff. The entire team must be involved and invested, from the surgical technician to the top executive.

Hospitals also do not have to accept that readmission is an inevitable mistake. It is encouraged that the goal be zero readmission after surgery, even if the end result is just that rates significantly decline.

Because many patients are admitted to different hospitals for complications other than where the surgery was performed, it is also suggested that large health systems and electronic medical records go a long way toward providing better care for post-surgical patients. As patients leave the hospital after surgery, they deserve the peace of mind that comes from knowing they will heal properly.

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