Source: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

A new report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality finds that, “About 40 percent of patients who sought acute hospital care from 2006–2007… made multiple visits to the hospital, for an IP stay or ED visit, during the two-year period.”

The AHRQ study is unique because, “Most readmission studies only report information on patients who have multiple hospital IP stays; they exclude patients who sought care in the ED. “  This study includes, “patients who accessed hospital care in either or both acute care settings (IP and/or ED) over the two-year period.” By including this group the AHRQ study found an “increased rate of multiple visits by more than a third” of patients; ranging “from an average of 1.5 to 2.1 acute care hospital visits per patient.”

Report Highlights:

• Two out of every five patients who sought acute hospital care (either an inpatient stay or an emergency department visit) from 2006–2007 in the selected states made multiple visits to the hospital during the two-year period.
• More than a quarter of patients with an inpatient (IP) hospital stay in 2006–2007 in the selected states had multiple inpatient hospitalizations during the two-year period.
• Factoring in ED visits increased the rate of multiple visits by more than a third, from an average of 1.5 IP readmissions to 2.1 hospital visits per patient.
• Medicare patients had the highest IP readmission rates (1.9 visits per Medicare patient) while Medicaid patients had the highest ED revisit rates (2.5 visits per Medicaid patient).
• Looking across both IP and ED settings, patients living in the poorest communities had 26.5 percent higher hospital revisit rates compared to patients from the wealthiest areas: 2.2 versus 1.8 visits per patient, respectively.
• Accounting for ED visits increased the percentage of patients seeking repeat hospital care for asthma (31.3 percent increase), uncomplicated diabetes (22.8 percent increase) and high blood pressure (20.9 percent increase).

Click this link from the AHRQ to view the complete 10 Page PDF report at:
Hospital Readmissions and Multiple Emergency Department Visits