Thousands of Pennsylvania residents are readmitted five or more times each year, with three percent being hospitalized at least five times, according to the report. Approximately 6,600 were hospitalized at least seven times, and 2,500 were hospitalized nine or more times.
The dataset the council used, called the “super-utilization data,” was culled from hospital reports over the 2013 to 2014 fiscal year. The researchers limited the search to adults and did not include maternity or rehabilitation cases or visits to the emergency department unless it resulted in admission.
“These individuals often move between emergency departments and inpatient admissions and readmissions, and often across different hospitals or health systems,” the council wrote in the report. “The result is high healthcare costs that might have been prevented through early intervention and collaborative care.”
