A program launched by Schnelle in January 2013 aims to reduce readmissions for Medicare patients transferred from Vanderbilt University Hospital to any of 23 area skilled nursing facilities, or SNFs. The specific goal is 17 percent reduction, by 2015, in 30-day hospital readmissions directly from these SNFs.

Healthcare Informatics Magazine has awarded Vanderbilt University Medical Center third place in its 2014 Innovator Awards.

Recent sweeping changes to undergraduate medical education at Vanderbilt are intended to produce physicians who are better attuned to teamwork and more accustomed to leading teams to improve clinical outcomes, quality and patient safety.

Blackford Middleton, M.D., MPH, M.Sc., chief informatics officer for Vanderbilt University Health System, has begun a two-year term as chair of the board of directors of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA).

In preliminary testing, Vanderbilt Home Care Services (VHCS) has found that Internet-based remote patient monitoring reduces hospital readmissions for patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) who are receiving home nursing visits.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s 55 patient transporters average approximately 550 transports per weekday and 425 per day over the weekend. The dispatch system that coordinates transport is fully automated.