A February 2013 study by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation reported that 20 percent of Medicare patients are readmitted to hospitals within 30 days of discharge. This is driven in part by the fact that 80 percent of hospitals and primary care physicians lack direct post-discharge contact with patients to identify risks and offer a chance for intervention.

By using a collaborative communications system as part of patient discharge plans, providers have a way of controlling and ultimately, reducing the number of hospital readmissions.

The Pitney Bowes Healthpoint 360 Collaborate solution is designed to trigger communications before – and after - the patient discharge process, and it is scalable to hundreds of thousands of patients as they move through the healthcare continuum. Healthpoint 360 Collaborate ensures that all information is accurate and up-to-date, allowing providers to anticipate member needs and next steps for superior follow-up response. This enables healthcare companies to prioritize and personalize member communications across key channels, including contact centers, intelligent voice response phone calls (IVRs), physical mail, email, web portals, social media and mobile.

Healthpoint 360 Collaborate is an end-to-end communications platform that can be implemented modularly. It complements existing investments in care management software and EHR technology, allowing providers to realize greater value from legacy systems. It is also available as a hosted SaaS application.