Interview with Dr. Albert Hakaim (Mayo Clinic): Standardizing Readmissions and Improving Post-Discharge Care

In this episode of The Surgical Journey, NovaNav Chief Strategy Officer Lisa Miller sits down with Dr. Albert Hakaim, pioneering vascular and endovascular surgeon and one of the foundational surgical leaders at Mayo Clinic Florida, to discuss what truly drives outcomes after a patient leaves the hospital. Drawing from decades of surgical leadership, Dr. Hakaim shares practical insights on post-discharge risk, why many recovery issues are invisible in traditional quality metrics, and how health systems can reduce avoidable readmissions through better communication, triage, and standardization across teams. The conversation explores why aligning surgeons on consistent readmission criteria is harder than most people realize, and why patient experience is often shaped by one simple factor: how quickly questions get answered after discharge. Key topics include: Post-op follow-up calls and why proactive outreach matters The hidden drivers of readmissions across surgical specialties CABG recovery and why anxiety and uncertainty increase ER utilization The tradeoff between length of stay vs readmission costs How technology, wearables, and automation can improve triage without adding staff burden Lessons from home-based recovery and the patient experience   EPISODE CONTENTS 0:00 NovaNav Introduction 0:54 Guest Introduction: Dr. Albert Hakaim 2:26 Decisions with the biggest positive impact on outcomes 3:28 Automating triage to reduce communication delays and readmissions 4:24 Streamlining post-operative care coordination support amidst workforce challenges 7:25 Patterns in post-discharge struggles that traditional metrics miss 10:21 Cross-team alignment: creating uniform readmission criteria 12:02 CABG readmissions and post-discharge variability in care 16:02 Longer length of stay vs readmission risk: what actually costs more under CMS TEAM 16:59 Managing accountability, data, and outliers across divisions 22:50 Episode wrap-up