Study finds post-discharge mortality rates and 30-day readmission rates have increased for heart failure patients

Post-discharge mortality rates and 30-day readmission rates increased for heart failure patients between 1993 and 2006.

A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association examined hospitalizations among almost 7 million Medicare patients between 1993 and 2006. Key findings include:

• The average length of stay for heart failure patients decreased by 2.5 days
• The in-hospital death rate fell from 8.5 percent to 4.3 percent
• The overall death rate for the 30-day period starting with hospital admission increased, from 4.3 percent in 1993 to 6.4 percent in 2006
• 20.1 percent of those who left the hospital were readmitted in 2006, compared to 17.1 percent in 1993

(Sources: The Advisory Board Daily Briefing, http://advisoryboard.com, June 1, 2010; Journal of the American Medical Association, http://jama.ama-assn.org, June 2, 2010)

Comments

[Jeff Levin-Scherz]

Note that lower death rate means sicker people surviving to discharge. Under these circumstances, higher readmission rate might not be as bad as it sounds at first.

Read my full post on this:
http://managinghealthcarecosts.blogspot.com/2010/06/unanticipated-consequences-shorter.html