Surprising Rehospitalization Rate For Medicare Patients
The rehospitalization rate for Medicare patients who have been hospitalized is surprisingly high – 20 percent. Readmission of Medicare patients is one in five and this happens within 30 days of first admission. In fact half of non surgical patients are readmitted in the absence of a doctor consultation outside the hospital. This data comes from a Commonwealth fund supported study.
According to the study, unplanned rehospitalizations cost Medicare over 17 billion dollars in 2004. The health impact of rehospitalization as well as the costs are analyzed in the study. The main reasons behind rehospitalization as well as the gaps in patient management are studied in this piece of research.
Health care reform is very important to the nation today. Hospitals are to be encouraged to work in such a way that readmissions are reduced. Improving patients lives and health through proper management also saves billions of dollars. There was a wide variation in rehospitalization rates between states. The five states with the highest rate of rehospitalizations had 45 percent higher rehospitalization rates than the fives states with lowest rates.
Many steps to reduce rehospitalization have been suggested. Better patient education, helping hospitals to better understand comparative readmission rates. Work also needs to be doen to ensure patients get follow up care. Such rehospitalization is worrisome and something must be done about it.
