Readmission within 30-Day as a Key Indicator for Academic Hospital Performance: Rate and Risk Factors

Abstract

Background: Unplanned hospital readmission is concerning health care providers and is frequently used as a quality indicator for hospital care. Objectives: This study was conducted in order to examine the rate and associated factors for 30-day readmission in internal medicine units at King Abdulaziz University Hospital, Jeddah. Methods: We retrospectively collected data for patients who had readmission within 30 days of hospital discharge from January 2010 to December 2013. We obtained the following information for all patients: patient demographics, admitting medical service, diagnosis at the first admission, presence of hypoxia, sepsis, and hospital length of stay at the first admission. We then compared the data for patients with 30-day readmissions to those who did not have readmission within 30 days Results: Of the 3838 patients who had hospital admission within the study period, 678 (17.7%) had readmission within 30 days. The mean patient age was 52 years (SD, 21.2 years). Patients who had readmission within 30 days were more likely to be female; older than 65 years of age; diabetic; hypertensive; bed ridden; and to have a history of stroke, bed sores and/or sepsis (all P values ≤0.001, except for stroke, P=0.003). Conclusion: Our study showed that about 18% of patients had readmission within 30 days. Those patients were of older age, with comorbidities like, diabetes or stroke or were bedridden.