2025 Quality Summit ePoster Presentation -Second Place (Non-CE)-2025 Quality Summit ePoster -Second Place

Video Transcription

Video Summary

Misty Theriault from Lake Charles Memorial Hospital presented a successful initiative to reduce readmissions following TAVR procedures in a rural, underserved community. Starting with a nearly 13% readmission rate, her team conducted root cause analyses identifying inconsistent discharge education, poor appointment coordination, and lack of monitoring as key issues. Interventions included simplified patient education, social determinant assessments, proactive conduction system monitoring, medication delivery at discharge, scheduled follow-ups for one year, and provision of home monitoring devices. They also improved EMR integration, fostering real-time communication and alerts between care teams. Over several years, readmissions dropped to about 2%, pacemaker rates decreased, and hospital stays shortened, while saving costs significantly despite a high-risk, frail patient population. The team emphasized collaboration with cardiologists, hospitalists, pharmacy, and coding, and continuous monitoring through ACC certification processes. Challenges included staff turnover and EMR adaptation. Future plans involve automating alerts for high-risk patients to sustain improvements. Misty credited prioritization and teamwork for the project's success.

Keywords

TAVR readmission reduction

rural healthcare initiative

patient discharge education

EMR integration

post-TAVR monitoring