The central role of performance measurement in improving the quality of transitional care.

The objectives of this study were: (1) to demonstrate the ability of the Care Transitions Measure (CTM) to identify care deficiencies; (2) to devise and implement a quality improvement approach designed to remedy these deficiencies; (3) to assess the impact of the quality improvement approach on CTM scores; and (4) to test whether the CTM-3 predicts return to the emergency department. The CTM was found to be a sensitive tool able to capture changes in performance. The 3-item CTM was found to significantly predict post-hospital return to the emergency department within the first 30 days (p = 0.004).