Assessing preventability in the quest to reduce hospital readmissions

Preventability of early readmissions at a children's hospital.

OBJECTIVE To determine whether pediatric readmissions within 15 days of discharge were considered preventable. METHODS Retrospective chart review of 200 randomly selected readmissions (8% of all readmissions) occurring within 15 days of discharge from a freestanding children's hospital between January 1, 2007, and December 31, 2008. The degree of preventability was assessed independently for ...

Hospital Strategies to Reduce Heart Failure Readmissions

Heart failure (HF) currently affects 6.5 million adults in the United States (1), and its prevalence is projected to increase by 25% by 2030 (2). Hospitalization represents a turning point in the natural history of HF, with a combined mortality and readmission rate of 30% within 90 days post-discharge; one-quarter of patients are readmitted within 30 days (3,4). Hospitalizations are responsible...

Heart Failure Interventions to Reduce Hospital Readmissions

Interventions to reduce hospital readmissions in the elderly: in-hospital or home care. A systematic review.

RATIONALE, AIMS AND OBJECTIVES Unplanned hospital readmissions of elderly people represent an increasing burden on health care systems. This burden could theoretically be reduced by adequate preventive interventions, although there is uncertainty about the effectiveness of different types of interventions. The objective of this systematic review was to identify interventions that effectively re...

Solving the Readmissions Puzzle: How Do Variability and Preventability Fit?

Since October 1, 2012, the Hospital Readmission Reduction Program, established by the Affordable Care Act, has imposed financial penalties on hospitals with high readmission rates for targeted conditions covered by Medicare. This program has led to reductions in readmissions even for conditions that were not initially targeted for such penalties.1 Although this program has almost exclusively ta...