Hospital readmission rates are a constant source of researchers' and academics' analysis, particularly as American hospitals face increased pressure to reduce avoidable readmissions under the federal value-based purchasing program. Here are seven recent findings on hospital readmissions, including what factors affect them and the cost of readmissions to hospitals' bottom lines and quality.
1. Potentially avoidable readmissions make up 10 percent to 14 percent of all admissions for most hospitals, or roughly 45 percent of them, according to an infographic from Objective Health. Here are seven other statistics on readmissions.
2. A report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation highlighted hospitals' approaches to reduce readmissions, including working with the healthcare community, identifying and working with at-risk populations, facilitating smoother transitions and collaborating with healthcare providers.
3. Medicare and Medicaid patients are more likely than other patients to be admitted to a hospital within seven days of being discharged from an emergency department, according to a study from the Annals of Emergency Medicine.
4. The current method of calculating readmission rates — looking at "all-cause" readmissions — may generate artificially high rates, according to a recent study. Authors concluded that hospitals' readmission rates would be more accurate if they took into account planned staged surgery and unrelated reasons for readmission.
5. A recent study found U.S. states with the highest income inequality have an estimated 40,000 extra readmissions than states with the lowest income inequality. The authors estimated that from 2006 through 2008, there were an additional 7,153 readmissions for acute myocardial infarction; 17,991 readmissions for heart failure; and 14,127 readmissions for pneumonia associated with income inequality in states in the three highest quarters of income equality compared with states in the lowest quarter.
6. Thirty-day readmission rates and mortality rates are not correlated for acute myocardial infarction (heart attack) or pneumonia, and only weakly linked for heart failure, according to a study from the Journal of the American Medical Association.
7. The readmission rates in hospitals across the U.S. did not change significantly from 2008 to 2010, according to a report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation based on data from the Dartmouth Atlas Project. Only six of 92 academic medical centers studied had statistically significant changes in 30-day readmission rates for medical discharges, and only seven academic medical centers had statistically significant changes in 30-day readmission rates after surgery; in both groups, at least one hospital's readmission rates increased.
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1. Potentially avoidable readmissions make up 10 percent to 14 percent of all admissions for most hospitals, or roughly 45 percent of them, according to an infographic from Objective Health. Here are seven other statistics on readmissions.
2. A report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation highlighted hospitals' approaches to reduce readmissions, including working with the healthcare community, identifying and working with at-risk populations, facilitating smoother transitions and collaborating with healthcare providers.
3. Medicare and Medicaid patients are more likely than other patients to be admitted to a hospital within seven days of being discharged from an emergency department, according to a study from the Annals of Emergency Medicine.
4. The current method of calculating readmission rates — looking at "all-cause" readmissions — may generate artificially high rates, according to a recent study. Authors concluded that hospitals' readmission rates would be more accurate if they took into account planned staged surgery and unrelated reasons for readmission.
5. A recent study found U.S. states with the highest income inequality have an estimated 40,000 extra readmissions than states with the lowest income inequality. The authors estimated that from 2006 through 2008, there were an additional 7,153 readmissions for acute myocardial infarction; 17,991 readmissions for heart failure; and 14,127 readmissions for pneumonia associated with income inequality in states in the three highest quarters of income equality compared with states in the lowest quarter.
6. Thirty-day readmission rates and mortality rates are not correlated for acute myocardial infarction (heart attack) or pneumonia, and only weakly linked for heart failure, according to a study from the Journal of the American Medical Association.
7. The readmission rates in hospitals across the U.S. did not change significantly from 2008 to 2010, according to a report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation based on data from the Dartmouth Atlas Project. Only six of 92 academic medical centers studied had statistically significant changes in 30-day readmission rates for medical discharges, and only seven academic medical centers had statistically significant changes in 30-day readmission rates after surgery; in both groups, at least one hospital's readmission rates increased.
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