This is the first national report to look at how effectively communities and hospitals coordinate care for some of their sickest patients—those leaving the hospital after a stay to treat an... More > acute or chronic illness. Without high-quality care coordination, patients can bounce from home to the emergency room and back into the hospital, sometimes repeatedly. The readmission rate to hospital is increasingly seen as a marker of a local health care system’s ability to coordinate care for patients across the full continuum of care settings: hospitals, rehabilitation and skilled nursing facilities, nursing homes, clinician offices, hospice and home. Better care coordination promises to reduce readmission rates and improve patients’ lives while reducing costs.< Less
Chronically-ill Medicare patients spent fewer days in the hospital and received more hospice care in 2007 than they did in 2003, but at the same time there was an increase in the intensity of care... More > for patients who were hospitalized, according to a new Dartmouth Atlas Project report on trends and variation in end-of-life care.< Less
For patients whose conditions can be treated with elective surgery, location matters. In this Dartmouth Atlas report, the first in a series looking at individual states and regions, we show the wide... More > regional variation in the likelihood that patients with similar conditions receive elective procedures. This report highlights Minnesota and shows the variation across the state.< Less
The Dartmouth Atlas Project works to accurately describe how medical resources are distributed and used in the United States. The project offers comprehensive information and analysis about national,... More > regional, and local markets, as well as individual hospitals and their affiliated physicians, in order to provide a basis for improving health and health systems. Through this analysis, the project has demonstrated glaring variations in how health care is delivered across the United States.< Less
The Dartmouth Atlas Project works to accurately describe how medical resources are distributed and used in the United States. The project offers comprehensive information and analysis about national,... More > regional, and local markets, as well as individual hospitals and their affiliated physicians, in order to provide a basis for improving health and health systems. Through this analysis, the project has demonstrated glaring variations in how health care is delivered across the United States.< Less
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