Tools & Strategies News

Predictive Analytics Tool Identifies Readmission Risk, Reduces Costs

In a study, Corewell Health researchers described how predictive analytics helped the organization prevent 200 patient readmissions and drive $5 million in cost savings.

AI care coordination hospital readmissions

By Shania Kennedy

- Corewell Health care coordinators shared that a recent initiative, which uses predictive analytics to forecast risk and reduce readmissions, has kept 200 patients from being readmitted and resulted in a $5 million cost savings.

These results, initially reported in a study published in NEJM Catalyst in December, stemmed from an initiative that began in January 2021 when the care coordination team at Spectrum Health, now part of Corewell Health, started to predict readmission risk. Leveraging artificial intelligence and predictive analytics, the team looked at which patients faced a more difficult recovery after their hospitalization and used that information to create a plan to address barriers to recovery from the first day of discharge to the end of the first month.

“By working in advance of recovery barriers and focusing on whole-person needs, real rates of readmission can be reduced, even for people at high risk for return to acute care,” said study co-author Alejandro Quiroga Chand, MD, senior vice president, chief medical officer ambulatory care and population health, Corewell Health West, in the press release.