Health and Disability

Patients readmitted within 30 days were younger and more likely to be African American, and readmitted patients had significantly more comorbidities, such as coronary artery disease, congestive heart disease, peripheral vascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cirrhosis, diabetes mellitus, and metastatic cancer.   In addition, patients with a 30-day readmission had longer durations of hospitalization, more emergency department visits in the 6 months prior to their hospitalization, and were more likely to have Medicaid insurance compared with patients without a 30-day readmission.   There are 2 reasons why a larger number of discharge medications is related to readmission, according to the researchers. First, increasing medication use is likely related to disease severity, which is a good marker for readmission risk; and second, the more medications a patient is prescribed, the less likely the patient will be compliant due to either cost issues, side effects, or inability to keep track of medication use.