More than half of heart attack patients and 70.3 percent of heart failure patients over 65 years old are readmitted within a year, according to a study in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.
Researchers analyzed Medicare data from 2008 to 2010 to identify and track patients discharged following hospitalization for either heart failure or a heart attack.
Of the 878,963 heart failure patients identified, 618,283 (70.3 percent) were readmitted within one year. Of the 350,509 heart attack patients indentified, 177,031 (50.5 percent) were readmitted within one year.
The researchers also noted that the risk of readmission is not necessarily the highest during the first month after discharge, suggesting the standard 30-day period used to evaluate a hospital's readmission performance may need to be lengthened.
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Researchers analyzed Medicare data from 2008 to 2010 to identify and track patients discharged following hospitalization for either heart failure or a heart attack.
Of the 878,963 heart failure patients identified, 618,283 (70.3 percent) were readmitted within one year. Of the 350,509 heart attack patients indentified, 177,031 (50.5 percent) were readmitted within one year.
The researchers also noted that the risk of readmission is not necessarily the highest during the first month after discharge, suggesting the standard 30-day period used to evaluate a hospital's readmission performance may need to be lengthened.
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