Federally funded project promotes CTI to reduce hospital readmissions
CACTI Director Dan Herman participated in a webinar on July 27 sponsored by the Rutgers University Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research as part of a new project funded by the federal Agency for Health Care Research and Quality. SMINET: Applying Evidence to Improve Care and Outcomes in Severe Mental Illness builds on an established multi-state consortium to increase uptake, on a broad scale, of selected evidence-based practices in the care of persons with severe mental illness that are particularly high-impact targets for improving long-term health outcomes. In this context, CTI is being promoted as a potential strategy to reduce the risk rehospitalization among high-risk patients following discharge from acute psychiatric treatment. Participating in the webinar were over thirty organizational leaders working in state and county government departments, managed care companies and community coalitions and councils from the states of Washington, Texas, California, Missouri, Oklahoma and New Jersey. Future goals of the project include development of and implementation of state quality improvement plans, impact evaluation of these plans and local and national dissemination of promising practices.