Re-admission rates via emergency rooms climbing among patients who have recently been hospitalized

June 1, 2011 in Health

Emergency department patients who have recently been hospitalized are more than twice as likely to be admitted as those who have not recently been in the hospital, according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania which will be presented this week at the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine's annual meeting.

"Patients who return to the emergency department within seven days of hospitalization have both relatively high and increasing rates of ," says Zachary F. Meisel, MD, MPH, MSc, an and a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, who led the study. "These findings are important because they come at a time when there is a great effort underway to reduce hospital re-admission rates, and they give us clues about how emergency departments can play a role in that process."

Looking at data from the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, Meisel and his colleagues analyzed a sample of about 2.3 million from each year between 2005 and 2008 and found that hospital re-admission rates for recently hospitalized patients increased for each year of the study -- from 28.6 percent to 38 percent. Admission rates for patients not recently hospitalized increased at a lesser rate -- from 15.3 percent to 17.2 percent. These findings do not appear to be driven by differences in age or the system of triaging sick or injured patients who seek help in the emergency room.

The findings suggest rich possibilities for future research, Meisel says. "First, these results tell us that most patients who come to an emergency department after a hospitalization are not being readmitted. This means that the emergency department plays a major role in preventing readmissions by taking care of these patients and sending them home," he says. "However, because admission decisions are often made in the , we need to better understand why recently discharged patients are more likely to be admitted to the hospital than people who have not recently been in the hospital. For example, are they being treated extra cautiously? Is there a sense on the part of emergency physicians that their inpatient physicians know these patients better and can take better care of them in the hospital?"

The data also has policy implications, the researchers suggest, for better defining the role of emergency departments in determining the disposition of recently hospitalized patients. Hospitals might, for instance, identify ways to intervene at the time of discharge to reduce use in the coming days and weeks, or improve the capacity of their emergency departments to safely discharge the back to their homes.

Provided by University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine search and more info website

not rated yet  

Rank not rated yet
Relevant PhysicsForums posts

More news stories

Adult day services for dementia patients provide stress relief to family caregivers

Family caregivers of older adults with dementia are less stressed and their moods are improved on days when dementia patients receive adult day services (ADS), according to Penn State researchers.

Health created 1 hour ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Schools should provide opportunities for 60 minutes of daily physical activity to all students

Given the implications for the overall health, development, and academic success of children, schools should play a primary role in ensuring that all students have opportunities to engage in at least 60 minutes per day of ...

Health created 1 hour ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Survey reveals the success of personal budgets in social care

Over 70 per cent of people who hold a personal budget for social care said it led to greater independence and support according to the latest survey.

Health created 4 hours ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Scientists develop smartphone 'assistance agent' for older people

A new smartphone application, developed by scientists at the University of Ulster, which could help older people engage fully in an increasingly self-serve society, may be ready for use by the end of the ...

Health created 4 hours ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Can you put a price on health?

As health services strive to improve quality and reduce costs, researchers study the benefits – and the pitfalls – of 'pay for performance' in hospitals.

Health created 4 hours ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast


Motion quotient: IQ predicted by ability to filter motion (w/ video)

A brief visual task can predict IQ, according to a new study. This surprisingly simple exercise measures the brain's unconscious ability to filter out visual movement. The study shows that individuals whose ...

Defective cellular waste removal explains why Gaucher patients often develop Parkinson's disease

Gaucher disease causes debilitating and sometimes fatal neurodegeneration in early childhood. Recent studies have uncovered a link between the mutations responsible for Gaucher disease and an increased risk ...

Discarded immune cells induce the relocation of stem cells

Spanish researchers have discovered that the daily clearance of neutrophils from the body stimulates the release of hematopoietic stem cells from the bone marrow into the bloodstream, according to a report published today ...

Improved chemo regimen for childhood leukemia may offer high survival, no added heart toxicity

Treating pediatric leukemia patients with a liposomal formulation of anthracycline-based chemotherapy at a more intense-than-standard dose during initial treatment may result in high survival rates without causing any added ...

UN reports 22 deaths worldwide from coronavirus

A new coronavirus has now claimed 22 lives worldwide out of 44 lab-confirmed cases, mostly in Saudi Arabia, World Health Organization officials said Thursday.

Protein preps cells to survive stress of cancer growth and chemotherapy

Scientists have uncovered a survival mechanism that occurs in breast cells that have just turned premalignant-cells on the cusp between normalcy and cancers-which may lead to new methods of stopping tumors.