30-day hospital readmission rates, ?? an appropriate QI marker
A recent NIH study looked at the effect of the Medicare Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) on 30-day readmission rates after hospitalizations for acute myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, or pneumonia, and in particular looking at whether the previously lowest performing hospitals improved more than the higher performing ones after the introduction of HRRP (see hospital readmission aim2016 in dropbox , or doi:10.7326/M16-0185). Details: -- 15,170,008 Medicare patients discharged alive from US acute care hospitals between 2000 and 2013. -- Mean age 79.5, 54% female, 85% white/10% black/4.7% other race, 19% admitted with acute MI/45% CHF/36% pneumonia, 52% discharged to home/18% to home with care/23% to nursing home, average length of stay 6 days, 25% rural hospitals/65% private nonprofit/9% major teaching hospitals, overall observed readmission rate 23%. -- HRRP penalties for 30-day readmission rates were: 0% for the highest perfo...