Background: Patients recurrently admitted to the hospital account for a disproportionate percentage of hospital costs and frequently experience fragmentation of care and poor health outcomes. On our hospitalist service at a large academic medical center, patients admitted five or more times per year make up less than 1% of patients but approximately 5% of admissions. [...]

Background: Patients who are high utilizers of the health care system pose a significant burden to health care in the United States. These patients have higher rates of emergency department (ED) use, hospital readmission and cost compared to the general population, and tend to be medically, behaviorally and socially complex. Patients with high healthcare usage [...]