A national study to measure incidence of early death after discharge from emergency departments, and explore potential sources of variation in risk by measurable aspects of hospitals and patients, found that every year, a substantial number of Medicare beneficiaries die soon after discharge from emergency departments, despite no diagnosis of a life limiting illnesses recorded in their claims. The study, published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), performed the first nationally representative study of early death after discharge from an emergency department in patients living in the community, using US Medicare claims linked to death certificates.
Read more: Early death after discharge from emergency departments: analysis of national US insurance claims data. BMJ. February 2017.