Readmission of Psychiatric Patients in a Psychiatric Hospital

Introduct ion A study of readmissions is important because it is a means of assessing the degree to which current hospital practises are achieving the goals that have been set i. e., to enable a patient to maintain himself in the community in a normal manner by decreasing effects of institutionalization; to return the patient to community after hospitalization as early as possible; and thereafter to maintain him in the community as long as possible (Rosenblatt and Mayer 1974). Readimission statistics have methodological advantages. They are easy to obtain, are highly reliable (either patient is readmitted or not readmitted), so different investigators are likely to get comparable results. They are also easily quantifiable.