PUTNAM — Day Kimball Hospital has learned that it has the lowest hospital-wide, 30-day readmission rate in Connecticut, and is actually lower than state success benchmarks in six out of seven readmission measures, said John Graham, MD, DKH vice president for medical affairs and quality/chief medical officer.

“One of the outcomes of the 2010 Affordable Care Act was the establishment of the readmissions reduction program, focused on improving care transitions from the hospital to other providers with a goal of reducing ‘preventable complications’ that lead to readmission to the hospital,” said Graham. “We took this challenge very seriously, evidenced by formalizing a ‘Transitions of Care Team’ to aggressively manage our patients’ continuum of care…and these results indicate that our efforts have been successful.”

The 30-day admissions rates are calculated in seven categories: Acute myocardial infarction (heart attack), heart failure, pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary (a type of obstructive lung disease, such as emphysema), hip/knee replacement, stroke and hospital wide.