30-day-all-cause-readmission-medical-surgical-patients

INDICATOR NAME

Name

30-day all cause hospital readmission rate for medical and surgical patients

Alternate Name

Hospital readmission rate within 30 days of leaving hospital for medical or surgical treatment

INDICATOR DESCRIPTION

Description

This indicator measures the rate, per 100 patient discharges, of unplanned returns to a hospital within 30 days of discharge. It includes medical patients who were hospitalized for non-surgical treatment, and patients who had surgery while in hospital. A lower rate is better.

HQO Reporting tool/product

Public reporting

Dimension

Effective

Type

Outcome

DEFINITION AND SOURCE INFORMATION

Unit of Measurement

Rate per 100 discharges

Calculation Methods

The numerator divided by the denominator per 100 patient discharges

Numerator (short description i.e. not inclusions/exclusions)

The number of episodes of care for medical and surgical patients with an urgent readmission within 30 days of previous discharge

Denominator (short description i.e. not inclusions/exclusions)

The number of episodes of care discharged between April 1 and March 1 of the fiscal year for surgical and medical patients

Adjustment (risk, age/sex standardization)- generalized

Risk adjusted

Data Source

Discharge Abstract Database (DAD), National Ambulatory Care Reporting System (NACRS)

Data provided to HQO by

Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI)

Reported Levels of comparability /stratifications (defined)

Institution, Region, Time

OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION

Caveats and Limitations

Urgent readmissions to acute care facilities have been widely used to measure institutional or regional quality of care and care coordination. Readmission rates can be influenced by a variety of factors, including the quality of inpatient and outpatient care, the effectiveness of the care transition and coordination, and the availability and use of effective disease management community-based programs. While not all unplanned readmissions are avoidable, interventions during and after a hospitalization can be effective in reducing readmission rates.Sometimes patients have to be hospitalized again shortly after being discharged from a previous hospitalization. Such an event is still referred to as a readmission and is not always avoidable.

Comments Summary

The readmission can occur in any acute care facility, it does not necessarily have to be the same location as the index hospitalization.