A disproportionately high number of older patients are readmitted for the same infection treated during an initial hospital stay, according to a new study published Oct. 23 in the Journal of The American Geriatrics Society.
Researchers analyzed 2013‐14 national data of 702,304 hospital discharges for Medicare patients 65 years or older, studying readmissions for four common types of preexisting hospital-acquired infections.
Fifty percent of patients were discharged to a nursing facility, with the remainder discharged almost equally between home healthcare and home. In total, 17,523 – 2.5 percent – of preexisting HAIs resulted in readmission with the same infection.
The readmission rate looks small, but this is after hospitals have presumably already treated the infection, lead author Geoffrey Hoffman, PhD, assistant professor at Ann Arbor based-University of Michigan School of Nursing, told a university news source.
The most common infection for readmission patients was Clostridioides difficile (4 percent), followed by urinary tract infections (2.4 percent) and surgical site infections (1.1 percent). Patients discharged to home care or home were 38 percent more likely to return with the same infection than those discharged to skilled nursing homes.
"This suggests home healthcare agencies aren't up to snuff with infection control and patients going home without home healthcare probably need better training, as do their caregivers,” Mr. Hoffman said.