A health system's population health committee is reviewing strategies to reduce 30-day hospital readmissions for patients with acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which currently incur significant financial penalties under the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program. Under standard discharge planning, the 30-day readmission rate for this population is 22%.
The committee is considering implementing an intensive transitional care program that provides home visits by a respiratory therapist, home delivery of new maintenance inhalers, and a telemedicine follow-up within 48 hours of discharge. A multi-center randomized controlled trial has shown that this program reduces the 30-day readmission rate in this specific population to 17%. The incremental cost to provide this intensive transitional care program is 750 dollars per patient.
Based on the trial data, what is the estimated cost (in dollars) to prevent one 30-day hospital readmission using this transitional care program?
Cevap: 15000 dollars