Characteristics of a hospital's capacity and intensity — measures of care during the last six months of life — play a role in 30-day heart attack readmission risk in addition to quality of care measures, such as discharge planning, according to a study in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
Researchers examined data on more than 188,000 heart attack patients between 2008 and 2009 in 1,088 hospitals to determine which hospital characteristics influence 30-day readmission.
Their data presented approximately 38,000 (20.3 percent) 30-day readmissions for patients with heart attacks. They found higher rates of medical admissions, number of intensive care unit days, number of physician visits and seeing more than 10 different physicians in the last six months of life were all associated with higher readmission rates.
Researchers suggest hospital-level measures of quality and intensity are significant in determining whether or not a patient will be readmitted. They suggest efforts to reduce readmission rates should consider and address these broader patient care patterns.
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