Length of stay and a measure of surgical patients' overall health can predict the risk of readmission rates within 30 days of discharge, according to a study in Annals of Surgery.
Researchers examined data on 230,864 patients discharged after general, upper gastrointestinal, small and large intestine, hepatopancreatobiliary, vascular and thoracic surgery using the 2011 American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program. The overall 30-day readmission rate was 7.8 percent.
A score using length of stay and American Society of Anesthesiologists class — a classification of patients' physical health presurgery — predicted the risk of readmission.
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