The governor’s office has appointed a statewide Complex Discharge Task Force established during the 2023 legislative session. The Task Force will establish workgroups, oversee a pilot program and make recommendations to the governor and legislature to address challenges faced with discharging patients from acute care settings and post-acute care capacity.
Workgroups: Health Management Associates (HMA) is working with the Task Force to establish workgroups to inform the areas of recommendations it must deliver. Each workgroup will be comprised of stakeholders with expertise in their respective areas of focus. Zosia Stanley, Vice President and Associate General Counsel for WSHA, is serving as a member of the Complex Discharge Task Force on behalf of WSHA and will be the point person for coordinating hospital representative participation on the workgroups. The workgroups will inform recommendations in the following areas :
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- Funding mechanisms
- Post-acute care and administrative day rates
- Managed care contracting
- Legal, regulatory, and administrative barriers to discharge
- Pilot program implementation and evaluation
Five site pilot: In addition, HMA is currently working with five hospitals identified during the legislative process to confirm each site meets criteria for participation in the pilot, including:
Significant volume of patients meeting complex discharge criteria
Geographic representation
Leadership support and active engagement
Data tracking, sharing and contributions to lessons learned
The five hospitals identified during the legislative process as potential pilot sites include: UW Medicine (Seattle); MultiCare (Spokane); Providence Swedish (Everett); PeaceHealth (Vancouver); and Virginia Mason Francian Health (Tacoma). (Zosia Stanley)
