Community factors and hospital wide readmission rates: Does context matter?

ABSTRACT:

Background

The environment in which a patient lives influences their health outcomes. However, the degree to which community factors are associated with readmissions is uncertain.

Objective

To estimate the influence of community factors on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services risk-standardized hospital-wide readmission measure (HWR)-a quality performance measure in the U.S.

Research design

We assessed 71 community variables in 6 domains related to health outcomes: clinical care; health behaviors; social and economic factors; the physical environment; demographics; and social capital.

Subjects

Medicare fee-for-service patients eligible for the HWR measure between July 2014-June 2015 (n = 6,790,723). Patients were linked to community variables using their

SUBMITTER: Spatz ES 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7584172 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature