Background: Hospital-acquired delirium is serious, leading to increased falls, pressure ulcers, length of stay, cost, patient institutionalization, and patient and caregiver distress. In addition, it is associated with mortality rates as high as 35-40% within one year in older patients who develop delirium. Programs targeted at delirium prevention and treatment may affect these outcomes. We [...]

Background: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is the third leading cause of hospital readmissions in America. Over one-third of patients admitted for COPD exacerbations are readmitted within 90 days, with readmissions costing $15 billion. Medicare instituted financial penalties for excessive readmissions after COPD hospitalizations, incentivizing the creation of readmission prediction tools. Two such tools, the [...]

Background: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is the third leading cause of hospital readmissions in America. Over one-third of patients admitted for COPD exacerbations are readmitted within 90 days, with readmissions costing $15 billion. Medicare instituted financial penalties for excessive readmissions after COPD hospitalizations, incentivizing the creation of readmission prediction tools. Two such tools, the [...]

Background: Hospital-acquired delirium is serious, leading to increased falls, pressure ulcers, length of stay, cost, patient institutionalization, and patient and caregiver distress. In addition, it is associated with mortality rates as high as 35-40% within one year in older patients who develop delirium. Programs targeted at delirium prevention and treatment may affect these outcomes. We [...]

Background: The United States sees over 35 million hospital discharges a year with a 20% readmission rate. Unplanned readmissions amount to 20 billion dollars annually. Efforts to prevent readmissions impact patient’s overall morbidity/mortality and alleviate the financial burden on health care systems. To that effect, the United States health care reform, under the Affordable Care [...]

Background: Black seniors have historically had higher readmission rates than white seniors, and hospitals that treat more black seniors have been disproportionately penalized the Medicare Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP). Consequently, the policy could exacerbate racial disparities. We sought to determine whether, under the HRRP, trends in 30-day post-discharge mortality differed between black and white [...]

Background: Hospital Readmission Reduction Program(HRRP) implemented by CMS as part of Affordable Care Act (ACA) applies financial penalties to hospitals that have higher-than-expected readmission rates for common conditions such as AMI, pneumonia, and HF. CMS extended this program to include COPD for the fiscal year (FY) 2015. While there has been a reduction in readmissions, [...]

Background: Avoidable readmissions result in unnecessary hospital stays for patients, over utilization of beds, and increased waiting time for other patients. Multiple interventions have examined reducing readmissions, mostly focusing on pre-discharge and out of hospital post-discharge interventions. An additional potential target in reducing avoidable readmissions are the population of patients returning to the Emergency Department [...]