Reducing hospital length of stay may not result in higher 30-day readmission rates, according to a study in Annals of Internal Medicine.
Researchers studied admissions at all 129 acute-care Veterans Affairs hospitals in the United States from 1997 to 2010. The admissions were divided into subsamples of two chronic diagnoses — heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease — and three acute diagnoses — acute myocardial infarction, community-acquired pneumonia and gastrointestinal hemorrhage.
Results showed that overall, the average hospital length of stay decreased from 5.44 days to 3.98 days, representing a 2 percent annual decrease over the study period. Thirty-day readmission rates also decreased for all diagnoses, from 16.5 percent to 13.8 percent. However, hospitals with a lower-than-expected length of stay had a higher readmission rate.
The authors concluded that the simultaneous decrease in length of stay and readmission rates suggests reducing length of stay does not necessarily increase readmission rates.
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Researchers studied admissions at all 129 acute-care Veterans Affairs hospitals in the United States from 1997 to 2010. The admissions were divided into subsamples of two chronic diagnoses — heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease — and three acute diagnoses — acute myocardial infarction, community-acquired pneumonia and gastrointestinal hemorrhage.
Results showed that overall, the average hospital length of stay decreased from 5.44 days to 3.98 days, representing a 2 percent annual decrease over the study period. Thirty-day readmission rates also decreased for all diagnoses, from 16.5 percent to 13.8 percent. However, hospitals with a lower-than-expected length of stay had a higher readmission rate.
The authors concluded that the simultaneous decrease in length of stay and readmission rates suggests reducing length of stay does not necessarily increase readmission rates.
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