Hospitals with highest volumes of hip and knee replacement patients also have the highest rates of readmissions and complications, according to CMS data analyzed in a report from The Inquirer.
While CMS data on readmissions and complications is intended to make hospital quality transparent, hospital officials caution that the data is more complicated than it appears at first glance. High readmissions, which may be caused by medical errors and poor care, can also reflect sicker patient populations, more cautious care and even more scrupulous record-keeping, according to the report.
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Abington (Pa.) Memorial Hospital Chief of Orthopedics Andrew Star, MD, voiced concerns that the readmissions data did not reflect the main outcome of joint replacement: improved patient mobility. "My concern with using readmission as a criteria is it doesn't really measure patient outcome per se. It's more of a financial parameter," he said to The Inquirer.
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