A new automated phone service at Grays Harbor Community Hospital provides recently discharged patients with details of their discharge and gives them an opportunity to request a follow-up phone call from hospital staff to discuss aspects of their care, such as access to medications, treatments or follow-up care.

According to the hospital, between October of last year, when the trial period began, and January 12 of this year, 760 calls were made to patients — 89 percent of those called were reached and offered assistance. If a patient indicated they needed assistance, hospital nursing staff called them back in an average of less than one hour and was able to resolve 177 issues.

More than 70 percent of all patients reached said their voice call was helpful to their post-discharge care. The trial, according to the hospital, indicated that those who answered and participated in the voice call system were 69 percent less likely to be readmitted within 30 days of discharge.

“With the overwhelming success of this program, we will now be using this protocol with all patients discharged from our inpatient units — Medical, Surgical and Critical Care,” said Tom Jensen, hospital CEO. “It is the hospital’s goal to communicate with all our patients in a manner which supports them in a safe and healing transition home.”

CipherHealth is the healthcare technology company that contracts with the hospital to make these automated calls. Nurses and other hospital staff were trained on ways to respond when patients requested a follow-up call.