Key Results
36%
Reduction in pediatric readmissions
2,700+
Inpatient days avoided
72%
Engagement rate on clinical questions
$6.9M
Estimated annual savings
With CipherOutreach, Seattle Children’s improved clinical outcomes at scale while protecting the bottom line.
How Seattle Children’s Reduced Pediatric Readmissions by 36% with CipherOutreach
CipherHealth has been so engaged in helping us continuously improve the program. It makes it very easy to keep advocating within our organization to expand and sustain it, while minimizing gaps in care.
Key Results
36%
Reduction in pediatric readmissions
2,700+
Inpatient days avoided
72%
Engagement rate on clinical questions
$6.9M
Estimated annual savings
With CipherOutreach, Seattle Children’s improved clinical outcomes at scale while protecting the bottom line.
Background
Seattle Children’s Hospital is one of the nation’s leading pediatric health systems, serving families across Washington, Alaska, Idaho, and Montana. With more than 400 beds and thousands of daily patient visits, the hospital cares for children with some of the most complex conditions, from transplants to cancer treatment.
In 2014–2015, the organization launched a system-wide effort to reduce preventable readmissions and strengthen post-discharge follow-up by providing care teams better tools to identify issues early. The result: lasting improvements in outcomes and family experiences.
Challenges
Seattle Children’s struggled with reaching patients consistently and in a timely manner post-discharge. A single transitional care nurse was responsible for calling patients after discharge, and while those calls proved effective, they were difficult to scale.
Patients who didn’t receive a follow-up call were 2.4 times more likely to be readmitted, which highlighted the clinical efficacy of the program. However, reaching all patients manually would have required significant staff resources.
“We needed to make sure families had safe transitions from hospital to home and into the community,” said Anu Asnani, MPH, CHES, Program Manager III, Care Management & Patient Flow.
Solution
In 2018, Seattle Children’s went live with CipherOutreach as part of its broader readmission reduction initiative. What began with English and Spanish calls expanded to Vietnamese and Somali, after data showed higher risk among families speaking those languages.
Today, outreach begins with automated calls that assess patient needs, followed by additional call attempts and a text message if there’s no response. If a patient indicates a clinical concern, the call is triaged for a nurse for follow-up. Non-clinical care coordinators manage routine issues, while four Transitional Longitudinal Care (TLC) nurses rotate responsibility for escalated cases.
This model ensures patients receive timely support while staff spend their time working at the top of their licenses. Standardized CipherHealth scripts guide each call, reducing the variation in language and improving consistency across Seattle Children’s outreach program.
“I’m most proud of being able to reach families in their primary language. Having an automated system that’s streamlined and efficient has been amazing,” Asnani said.
Results
Between January 2023 and December 2024, Seattle Children’s achieved notable improvements in engagement, readmissions, and cost savings:
What began as a readmission initiative has become a core quality metric, consistently performing at industry-leading levels while delivering financial and operational benefits. For leadership, the lesson has been clear: continue investing in what drives the best clinical results.
“Healthcare is under a lot of pressure to perform financially,” Andrew Mullenix, MHA, BSN, NE-BC, FACHE, Sr. Director, Hospital Operations said. “When you’re performing really well, it’s easy to lose focus and cut the very resources that make you successful. You have to stick with what’s working, while continuing to advance and improve. It doesn’t take more than a couple of avoided readmissions to show the value and ROI.”
