Butler Health System will have an opening reception Wednesday for its new Primary Care Resource Center at Butler Memorial Hospital.

The center will focus on improving the transition from hospital to outpatient care, with a goal of cutting readmissions. It is housed in a formerly unused area of BMH.

One goal is to decrease the readmission rates for three key diseases by 40 percent by the end of 2015.

The diseases considered most at risk for readmission are chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart failure, and acute myocardial infarctions.

“The goal is looking at patients with these chronic illnesses and helping them stay outside the hospital and live healthier lives,” said Kathy Brown, the project manager for the Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative.

Butler Memorial is one of six hospitals recruited by the health initiative to enter into a three-year grant program funded by a Health Care Innovation Award from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation.

An emphasis has been placed on reducing readmission rates due to provisions in the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that reduce Medicare payments to hospitals to account for preventable readmissions.

“It was one of the things that originally got (the health initiative) interested,” Brown said of the act.

The health initiative estimates the six hospitals could save Medicare $41 million in payments in the three years of the grant.

Brown said the center aims to take care of problems that patients have after leaving the hospital.

These can range from an inability to afford medicine to forgetting to make follow-up appointments with their physicians.

“Some patients tend to fall through the cracks,” she said. “There are a lot of disconnects that can happen with patients.”

Patients admitted to the hospital for any of the at-risk diseases will be monitored by the staff during their stay and receive instruction on their condition and a home action plan written with their physician’s input.

The staff also will make follow-up phone calls and do home visits to support patients.

The new center is staffed by three nurse care managers and a pharmacist, who all are paid for by the grant.

The center has been in planning for six months.

The other five hospitals in the grant program are the Conemaugh Memorial Medical Center, Johnstown; the Indiana Regional Medical Center, Indiana, Pa.; Sharon Regional Health System, Main Hospital, Sharon; Uniontown Hospital, Uniontown, and Wheeling Hospital, Wheeling, W.Va.

The ceremonial opening at Butler Memorial will run from 4 to 6 p.m. However, visitors may tour the center at any time from 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. that day.

Presentations will be given at the opening by several leaders involved in creating the center, including Ken DeFurio, president of Butler Health System.