Pediatric Readmission Prevalence and Variability Across Hospitals

Abstract

Clinicians, hospitals, health systems, patients, and purchasers of health care are using readmission rates as an indicator of the quality of care that patients receive during a hospital admission and after discharge.^1-3 About 20% of hospitalized elderly Medicare beneficiaries are readmitted within 30 days, and the readmission rates vary greatly across hospitals.^4,5 This variation is believed to indicate that a substantial proportion of readmissions may be preventable.^6,7 The Affordable Care Act mandates that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services reduce Medicare payments to hospitals with excessively high readmission rates.⁸