Background: Health care expenditures in the United States have been increasing exponentially while hospital care accounts for one-third of the costs. Approximately 18% of hospitalized Medicare beneficiaries are being readmitted within 30 days following their discharge. As a quality measure, penalties for high readmission rates are inversely affecting the reimbursements.  Currently, research on the factors [...]

Background: Observation units were initially intended to function as a short stay unit for lower acuity patients with specific diagnoses, however this traditional model is currently evolving.  Rising health care costs and changing health care policy have resulted in an increase utilization of the observation unit and an expansion of diagnostic criteria to include more [...]