http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. Teaching hospitals with a higher intensity of physician-training activity achieve lower mortality rates, but higher hospitalization readmission rates for key medical diagnoses, reports a study in the July issue of Medical Care. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-06-safety-net-hospitals-variations-quality-outcomes.html Health Mon, 17 Jun 2013 12:02:09 EST news290689321 A new study shows that pediatric nurse staffing ratios are significantly associated with hospital readmission for children with common medical and surgical conditions. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-nurse-staffing-ratios-affect-hospital.html Health Wed, 08 May 2013 00:10:01 EST news287161768 Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) – among the most widely prescribed antidepressant medications – are associated with increased risk of bleeding, transfusion, hospital readmission and death when taken around the time of surgery, according to an analysis led by researchers at UC San Francisco and Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Mass. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-ssris-perioperative-period-higher-adverse.html Cardiology Mon, 29 Apr 2013 16:00:03 EST news286466126 (Medical Xpress)—Discharging mental health patients on community treatment orders after they have been involuntarily hospitalised may require them to be on long periods of compulsory treatment without any benefit for the patient, a new study has found. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-compulsory-treatment-mental-illness.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 27 Mar 2013 09:41:09 EST news283596062 The use of electronic discharge orders aimed at providing evidence-based decision support and clear instructions to heart failure patients helped increase compliance with quality care measures and lowered hospital readmission rates, according to research being presented at the American College of Cardiology's 62nd Annual Scientific Session. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-electronic-discharge-tool-hospital-readmissions.html Cardiology Thu, 07 Mar 2013 12:28:39 EST news281881713 Patients who tested positive for carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) took an average of 387 days following hospital discharge to be clear of the organism, according to a new study published in the March issue of the American Journal of Infection Control, the official publication of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-superbug-cre-patients-year-infection.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Wed, 27 Feb 2013 11:00:02 EST news281183944 (HealthDay) —More than 1 million Americans end up back in the hospital just weeks after they're discharged, and many of those readmissions are preventable, according to an expert from Columbia University School of Nursing in New York City. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-hospital.html Health Wed, 20 Feb 2013 03:50:01 EST news280552956 (Medical Xpress)—When hospital patients have to be readmitted soon after discharge, hospitals look bad. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-hospitals-unfairly-high-readmission.html Other Fri, 15 Feb 2013 14:00:01 EST news280158886 In a study that included data on nearly 3 million hospital admissions for Medicare beneficiaries with heart attack, pneumonia or heart failure, researchers failed to find evidence that a hospital's performance on the measure for 30-day mortality rates was strongly associated with performance on 30-day readmission rates, findings that may lessen concerns that hospitals with lower mortality rates will have higher readmission rates, according to a study appearing in the February 13 issue of JAMA. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-hospital-readmission-mortality-medicare-patients.html Health Tue, 12 Feb 2013 16:30:05 EST news279906494 Following hospitalization for heart attacks, heart failure, or pneumonia, patients are at high risk of being readmitted for a broad spectrum of medical conditions in the month following hospital discharge, research at Yale School of Medicine shows. The study appears in the Jan. 23/30 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-readmissions-frequent-month-hospital-discharge.html Health Tue, 22 Jan 2013 16:00:13 EST news278091156 Following a hospitalization, patients face many challenges as they transition home. A new study of this vulnerable period published by Yale School of Medicine researchers in JAMA found that a substantial number of patients return to the emergency department soon after leaving the hospital, and, while such patients are not usually readmitted, the study raises concerns that many more patients require acute medical care after hospital discharge than previously recognized. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-emergency-room-redux-patients-hospitalization.html Health Tue, 22 Jan 2013 16:00:12 EST news278091137 In a national sample of 72 children's hospitals, 6.5 percent of hospitalized children experienced an unplanned readmission within 30 days, with significant variability in readmission rates across conditions and hospitals, according to a study appearing in the January 23/30 issue of JAMA. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-substantial-variation-readmission-children-hospitals.html Health Tue, 22 Jan 2013 16:00:08 EST news278091278 (HealthDay)—There were reductions in hospital stays for patients undergoing prostatectomy and cystectomy in 2004 to 2005, compared to those undergoing the procedures in 1992 to 1993, according to research published in the January issue of The Journal of Urology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-hospital-shorter-prostatectomy-cystectomy.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 10 Jan 2013 14:10:01 EST news277044719 (HealthDay)—Hospital nurses with good work environments who are caring for fewer patients have significantly fewer elderly Medicare patients with heart failure, acute myocardial infarction (MI), and pneumonia who are readmitted to the hospital within the first 30 days, according to research published in the January issue of Medical Care. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-staffing-medicare-patient-readmissions.html Health Fri, 04 Jan 2013 15:40:01 EST news276530008 (Medical Xpress)—Medical centers that elect to keep psychiatric files private and separate from the rest of a person's medical record may be doing their patients a disservice, a Johns Hopkins study concludes. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-psychiatric-medical-patients-hospitalization.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 02 Jan 2013 09:20:02 EST news276339753 (HealthDay)—Fears that patients are being forced out of hospitals dangerously early may be unfounded, researchers report. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-shorter-hospital-dont-compromise.html Health Mon, 17 Dec 2012 19:20:09 EST news274989704 (HealthDay)—About 7 to 8 percent of Medicare beneficiaries who undergo elective spine surgery for degenerative conditions are readmitted to the hospital within 30 days, according to a study published in the October issue of The Spine Journal. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-readmission-percent-elective-spine-surgeries.html Surgery Tue, 11 Dec 2012 05:41:10 EST news274426852 An analysis of two heart failure therapies finds differing outcomes regarding improvement in survival, according to two studies appearing in the November 28 issue of JAMA. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-therapies-heart-failure-survival.html Cardiology Tue, 27 Nov 2012 17:02:33 EST news273258143 Hospital administrative databases, designed to provide general information on hospital stays and associated costs, are frequently used to find information that can lead to quality assessments of care or clinical research. Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) extracted data on hospital readmissions following spine surgery at their institution from an administrative database to assess the clinical relevance of the information and to define clinically relevant predictors of readmission. What they found were readmission numbers substantially larger than expected or appropriate. The researchers' findings are reported in the article "Pitfalls of calculating hospital readmission rates based on nonvalidated administrative data sets. Clinical article," by Beejal Y. Amin, M.D., and colleagues, published online today, ahead of print, in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-administrative-source-surgical-complications.html Surgery Tue, 27 Nov 2012 11:42:39 EST news273238921 For elderly patients receiving home healthcare after a hospital stay, "social environmental factors"—particularly care provided by a family member or other informal caregiver—have a significant impact on the risk of repeated hospital admissions, reports a study in the October-December issue of Advances in Nursing Science. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-social-environmental-factors-affect-rehospitalization.html Health Mon, 12 Nov 2012 13:25:55 EST news271949133 When a cardiologist attends to heart failure patients, even when the severity of illness is higher, patients have reduced rates of hospital readmissions, compared with those patients who are treated by a hospitalist, according to a trial being presented today at the American Heart Association's scientific sessions in Los Angeles. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-hf-patients-cardiologist-hospitalist-readmissions.html Cardiology Tue, 06 Nov 2012 13:07:17 EST news271429454 Some heart attack patients end up back in the hospital just weeks after going home. It can happen for a variety of reasons, but doctors haven't had a reliable way to predict which patients will return—until now. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-tool-doctors-heart-patients-hospitalization.html Cardiology Mon, 05 Nov 2012 12:00:01 EST news271336986 Identifying risk factors in hospital readmissions could help improve patient care and hospital bottom lines, according to a study recently completed by Georgia State University's Experimental Economics Center and a team from the Emory University School of Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-factors-hospital-readmissions-surgery-patients.html Surgery Wed, 24 Oct 2012 12:18:05 EST news270299873 National efforts are underway to reduce 30-day readmission for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD); however, new research suggests that COPD readmissions may be related to risk factors that cannot be modified, including advanced disease and psychosocial factors. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-copd-readmission-tied-unmodifiable-factors.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Mon, 22 Oct 2012 03:10:20 EST news270094107 Three in 10 patients receiving a kidney transplant require readmission to the hospital within 30 days of discharge following surgery, according to a Johns Hopkins analysis of six years of national data. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-one-third-kidney-transplant-patients-readmitted.html Other Tue, 16 Oct 2012 04:13:51 EST news269579617 (HealthDay)—The use of device diagnostics to risk stratify patients during the first seven days after discharge can help identify patients at greatest risk of readmission for heart failure, according to research published online Oct. 4 in The American Journal of Cardiology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-device-id-heart-failure-patients.html Cardiology Mon, 15 Oct 2012 17:42:37 EST news269541748 When hospital patients have to be readmitted soon after discharge, hospitals look bad. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-hospital-readmission.html Health Wed, 10 Oct 2012 15:44:55 EST news269102690 Hospital readmission rates and early death rates are used to rank hospital performance but there can be significant variation in their values, depending on how they are calculated, according to a new study in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-hospital-affected-methods-readmissions-early.html Health Tue, 09 Oct 2012 12:00:05 EST news269002524 Postoperative complications are the most significant independent risk factor leading to 30-day hospital readmissions among general surgery patients, according to a new exploratory study published in the September issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-surgeons-postoperative-complications-posing-strongest.html Surgery Tue, 28 Aug 2012 01:00:01 EST news265309052 Preventing further complications in patients who develop infections after surgery to replace a knee or hip could save the U.S. healthcare system as much as $65 million annually, according to an analysis presented today at the 39th Annual Educational Conference and International Meeting of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-rehospitalizations-surgical-site-infections-.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Mon, 04 Jun 2012 00:20:02 EST news257925881