Preventability of Early Versus Late Hospital Readmissions in a National Cohort of General Medicine Patients.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Many experts believe that hospitals with more frequent readmissions provide lower-quality care, but little is known about how the preventability of readmissions might change over the postdischarge time frame.

Objective

To determine whether readmissions within 7 days of discharge differ from those between 8 and 30 days after discharge with respect to preventability.

Design

Prospective cohort study.

Setting

10 academic medical centers in the United States.

Patients

822 adults readmitted to a general medicine service.

Measurements

For each readmission, 2 site-specific physician adjudicators used a structured survey instrument to determine whether it was preventable and measured other characteristics.

Results

Overall, 36.2% of early

SUBMITTER: Graham KL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6247894 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature