Researchers studied the frequency of ED visits within 30 days of inpatient hospital discharge. They examined administrative data from an urban academic center from January to June 2010.
Among all inpatient discharges, 23.8 percent had at least one ED visit within 30 days, and more than half of these visits did not result in a hospital readmission. “Excluding a return to the ED misses more than 50 percent of all returns to the acute level of care after discharge,” the authors wrote. They suggest including ED return visits in hospitals’ examination of hospital readmissions.
More Articles on Hospital Readmissions:
Massachusetts Hospitals are Reducing Readmissions Through Patient Education
Study: Short-Term Hospital Readmissions Barely Affected by Long-Term Acute-Care Hospitals
3 Types of Patients at Higher Risk for Same-Cause Readmissions
