How a Team-based Care Program in Rural Virginia Helped to Reduce Patient Readmissions and Improve Health Outcomes

Date: July 5, 2022

How a Team-based Care Program in Rural Virginia Helped to Reduce Patient Readmissions and Improve Health Outcomes

New Community Guide in Action Story

BuchananCares Program: A Team-based Care Pilot led by a Rural Community Hospital and Local Pharmacist.

A team of clinical health professionals from the Appalachian College of Pharmacy, Buchanan General Hospital, and the Virginia Department of Health, developed the program, BuchananCares, to reduce patient readmissions and improve health outcomes. Led by Randall Cole, PharmD, the team built the program using recommendations from the Community Preventive Services Task Force and CDC resources.*

As reported by Dr. Cole, the BuchananCares program helped “prevent 30-day readmissions for patients with COPD, diabetes, heart failure, and pneumonia.” The BuchananCares program has been established as usual care at Buchanan General Hospital, and patient education has been expanded beyond the five disease conditions in the program pilot to include all disease conditions.

Read the full Community Guide in Action Story.

* The BuchananCares team used a Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention (DHDSP) website as a resource while developing the program.

The Guide to Community Preventive Services (The Community Guide) is a website that is a collection of all the evidence-based findings and recommendations of the Community Preventive Services Task Force.