Background: Many hospitals have focused on discharging patients before noon as a goal to improve throughput and decrease length of stay. However, those patients who can be discharged early in the day may actually represent a loss and not a win for the system, as they could have potentially been discharged the evening before. Methods: […]

Background: Health care equity, one of the six domains of high-quality health care as defined by the Institute of Medicine, will only be achieved when health care outcomes do not vary based on patient social characteristics, such as gender, race, ethnicity, geographic location, and socioeconomic status. Readmission is a significant outcome for patients and health […]

Background: Palliative care in seriously ill patients has been shown in some studies to improve satisfaction, symptoms, inpatient mortality rates, healthcare utilization and cost. While inpatient palliative care has been shown to improve symptoms and quality of life measures, the literature on its association with 30-day readmissions have been mixed for heart failure hospitalizations. We […]

Background: Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality reported an increase in Opioid-related hospitalizations from 2005 to 2014. Previous studies in patients undergoing surgery have shown an increased risk of readmission with opioid dependence. This study was intended to identify the all-cause 7 and 30-day readmission rates of hospitalizations with opioid-related disorders, and potential predictors of […]

Background: The Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) incentivizes acute care hospitals to decrease their preventable readmissions by putting hospitals at risk of reduced Medicare reimbursements. There exist many sources of heterogeneity in the actual incentives individual hospitals face each year. The HRRP applies the same methodology to hospitals regardless of their share of Medicare patients, […]

Background: Hospital readmissions are an important marker of healthcare quality, reflecting worse patient outcomes and resulting in millions of dollars of penalties annually. Medication nonadherence is an important driver of hospital readmissions, with one significant factor being difficulty obtaining medications after discharge. The difficulty could be due to copays, availability, or transportation to a local […]

Background: In 2011, ~3.3 million adult 30-day US hospital readmissions generated $41.3 billion in hospital costs. $8.26 billion (20%) of this was considered preventable. Numerous studies demonstrate relationships between hospital readmissions and social determinants of health (SDoH). Lack of education, socioeconomic status, and lack of social support have all been cited as core contributors to […]

Background: Measures to reduce hospital readmissions help to improve the quality of care patients receive, as well as reduce healthcare costs. The Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s Triple Aim of improving the quality of care through standardization, decreasing the cost of care by reducing hospital utilization, and patient-centeredness around transitions of care, resonate strongly with readmission […]

Background: COPD is the third leading cause of death and hospital readmissions. Inpatient care for patients with COPD exacerbations varies widely across the US which can lead to patients failing to receive recommended evaluation, treatment, education, and follow-up to reduce the likelihood of recurrent exacerbations and unnecessary acute care utilization. In an effort to innovate […]