Hospital Readmissions in Patients on Home Telemetry: Subgroup Analysis of a Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Home telemetry has been shown to reduce 30-day readmissions in patients at high risk for readmission. It remains unclear whether this finding is due to the telemetry itself or the nurse contact that follows detection of an abnormal parameter.

Purpose: This study was a subgroup analysis from a prior trial comparing patients on home telemetry for 30 days to usual care after discharge to determine if nurse contact affected readmission rates.

Methods: Patients randomized to telemetry who had at least 1 nurse contact were compared to those who had none to see if the contact reduced the rate of readmissions.

Results: Of 449 home telemetry patients, 292 (65.0%) received 1 or more nurse contacts. Single and multivariable logistic regression models exploring the association of contact with 30-day readmission did not find any statistically significant associations of nurse contact with readmission (all unadjusted P ≥ .13, all adjusted P ≥ .18).

Conclusion: Our subset analysis did not show that the nurse contact was the factor that reduced readmission in patients on home telemetry.