Introduction
Available information suggests that, in the United States, the urgency of cost containment is increasing. Although the rise in health care expenses has mitigated somewhat in recent years, it is the major driver of recent increases in the cost of living[1–3].
This situation has generated renewed interest in linking health care costs containment with improvement of outcomes, such as reduction of hospital readmissions and inpatient complications[4]. Both Medicare and Medicaid have already developed financial penalties for hospital readmissions beyond certain criteria[5].
Historically, hospital readmissions have been evaluated and addressed by individual health care providers. It has been suggested that readmissions are more useful than variables such as inpatient mortality, because they are the only inpatient indicator that reflects the condition of the patient after hospital discharge[6, 7].
During the 1990s, the availability of hospital discharge abstract data made it possible to develop consistent criteria for hospital readmissions and apply them to large populations of patients[8–10]. In the twenty first century, the development of computerized algorithms addressing hospital readmissions further increased the potential for evaluation and clinical management of these outcomes[11]. The use of these resources to address hospital readmissions has required health care providers to develop additional tools and mechanisms for clinical management.
One of the most fundamental mechanisms underlying hospital readmissions is their definitions, which vary. It has been suggested that readmissions may be defined as the number of patients who experience unplanned readmission within 30 days of the initial admission[12].
Another tool related to hospital readmissions that has been widely discussed is the evaluation of risk. Because acute hospitals admit large numbers of patients, it has been assumed that all of them cannot be followed for reduction of readmissions by clinical staff such as nurses and that models are needed to identify those at greatest risk of readmission. It has been suggested that the best models should have good predictive ability, be usable in large populations, use data that are easily available, and be based on indicators commonly used[13]. A number of predictive models of readmissions have been developed[14–16]. Some of these are based on administrative data, others require additional data collection. Many researchers have concluded that most models for prediction of readmissions are of poor quality[13, 17, 18].
The reduction of hospital readmissions by providers also requires criteria for tracking patients and specific interventions to prevent rehospitalizations. Tracking criteria are essential to ensure that target populations are being followed[19, 20]. Effective interventions are a key to preventing these adverse outcomes. The avoidance of readmissions in patients with chronic diseases is a major challenge for these services, but worth the resources because of the impact of chronic diseases on health care costs[4, 21–24].
This study described the development of quantitative tools related to management of hospital inpatient readmissions in a small metropolitan area of the United States, Syracuse, New York. Included in this aim were the development of a) Definitions of Inpatient Readmissions, b) Criteria for Evaluating and Tracking Target Populations, and c) Criteria for Evaluating the Risk of Readmission.
Population and methods
The setting for the study, the service area of the Syracuse hospitals, includes an estimated population of 600,000 (New York Statistical Information System, 2010). The hospitals, with total inpatient discharges excluding well newborns for 2010 include St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center (22,421), Crouse Hospital (20,448), University Hospital of the State University of New York Upstate Medical University (19,871), and Community General Hospital (7,369) (Hospital Executive Council, Unpublished data, 2011).
Historically, the Syracuse hospitals have worked cooperatively to improve the outcomes and efficiency of care in the community. A number of these efforts have been coordinated through the Hospital Executive Council, the collaborative planning organization for these facilities[25].
During 2010 and 2011, the Syracuse hospitals with the largest numbers of inpatient discharges, St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center and Crouse Hospital, developed programs addressing reduction of inpatient readmissions in order to improve patient care and make best use of clinical resources. Through these efforts, the hospitals addressed a number of important technical issues and developed management tools related to the evaluation and tracking of inpatient readmissions.
These programs were supported by the Potentially Preventable Readmissions software produced by 3M™ Health Information Services. This resource uses hospital discharge abstract data to identify and track readmissions using standardized criteria[11].
Definitions of inpatient readmissions
The definition of inpatient readmissions is of fundamental importance because it relates to the management of patients with respect to the indicators. The literature suggests that there is general agreement on a definition based on patients who return for repeat hospitalization within 30 days for non elective reasons[12].
Within these criteria, a definition of a hospital readmission based on a chain, made up of an initial admission and readmissions, emphasizes the initial admission as the driver. In this definition, the diagnosis of the initial admission becomes the diagnosis of the chain. A different definition of a hospital readmission, based on the individual readmissions, emphasizes these individual admissions. In this definition, the diagnoses of the individual readmissions are counted.
In the efforts of the Syracuse hospitals to develop programs for management of readmissions, both definitions were evaluated. This study provided examples and the respective implications of each for the patient management based on the Potentially Preventable Readmissions algorithm.
Criteria for evaluating the risk of readmission
The development of criteria for predicting the risk of hospital readmissions was an essential component of efforts to address these adverse outcomes in the Syracuse hospitals.
The acute care facilities involved in the study each provided treatment for more than 13,000 adult medical and surgery inpatients during 2010. As not for profit general hospitals in a small metropolitan area, these acute care facilities had limited numbers of staff to follow patients within this population who might be readmitted. Based on this information, they developed analyses of the risk of readmissions for chronic diseases using indicators such as patient age, severity of illness, and discharge status. The objectives of these efforts focused on identification of indicators that accounted for the largest numbers of repeat hospitalizations according to the Potentially Preventable Readmissions algorithm.
Criteria for identifying and tracking target populations
Efforts to address inpatient readmissions in the Syracuse hospitals also involved the development of spreadsheets for staff dedicated to tracking at risk patients. The tracking function was important because it would become the basis for interventions.
The development of interventions to address readmissions in the Syracuse hospitals was based on a planning process that involved identification of patients with chronic diseases who were readmitted to assess reasons for their rehospitalizations. Based on this process, spreadsheets for clinical management of patients were developed.
The patient specific data used in this portion of the study were administrative data, rather than information derived directly from patient medical records. This information is obtained from hospital discharge abstracts, rather than patient medical records. The use of administrative data among the hospitals of Syracuse, New York is authorized through the Hospital Executive Council Review Committee. Such research was carried out in compliance with the Helsinki Declaration.