Findings from a new report, from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), show approximately 25 percent of hospital patients were readmitted to the hospital within a two-year period for the same conditions that prompted their initial admission. For the report – Hospital Readmissions and Multiple Emergency Department Visits, in Selected States, 2006-2007 – data on 15 million patients in 12 states in 2006 and 2007 was analyzed.
Results show more than 33 percent of patients with coronary atherosclerosis were readmitted at least once during the two-year period. Furthermore, 30.3 percent of patients with uncomplicated diabetes, 28.2 percent with hypertension, and 20.8 percent with asthma were readmitted to the hospital multiple times.
The researchers also found that 41.8 percent of Medicare patients experienced multiple hospital admissions and 38.4 percent of Medicare patients experienced multiple emergency department visits. Among uninsured patients, 21.8 percent experienced multiple hospital readmissions and 38.0 percent had multiple emergency department visits without hospital admission. However, patients with private insurance were the least likely to require multiple hospital readmissions or make multiple emergency department visits (18.9 and 28.8 percent, respectively).
Read full report: Hospital Readmissions and Multiple Emergency Department Visits, in Selected States, 2006-2007