Hospital Readmissions of Children May Be Underestimated, New Study Says

Failure to track hospital readmissions to different hospitals can underestimate readmissions of children by as much as 13.9 percent, according to a new study in the journal JAMA Pediatrics. Hospital readmission rates are a common measure of hospital quality. Same-hospital readmission rates (SHRs) are most commonly tracked and reported. Hospitals usually lack data on different-hospital readmissions (DHRs) – that is, whether their patients are readmitted within a specific timeframe to a different hospital. In this AHRQ-funded study, researchers sought to determine the rate of 30-day pediatric DHRs. They analyzed 701,263 pediatric discharges from 177 acute-care hospitals in New York over a five-year period to identify an SHR rate, a DHR rate and an all-hospital readmission rate. The researchers concluded that DHRs, which constituted 13.9 percent of all readmissions in the study, affect all-hospital readmission rates and make SHRs an incomplete measure of readmissions and thus of quality. The study andabstract, “Same-Hospital Readmission Rates as a Measure of Pediatric Quality of Care,” were published August 3.

2015 Aug 3. doi: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2015.1129. [Epub ahead of print]

Same-Hospital Readmission Rates as a Measure of Pediatric Quality of Care.

Khan A1, Nakamura MM2, Zaslavsky AM3, Jang J4, Berry JG1, Feng JY5, Schuster MA1.

Author information

Abstract

IMPORTANCE:

Health care systems, payers, and hospitals use hospital readmission rates as a measure of quality. Although hospitals can track readmissions back to themselves (hospital A to hospital A), they lack information when their patients are readmitted to different hospitals (hospital A to hospital B). Because hospitals lack different-hospital readmission (DHR) data, they may underestimate all-hospital readmission (AHR) rates (hospital A to hospital A or B).

OBJECTIVES:

To determine the prevalence of 30-day pediatric DHRs; to assess the effect of DHR on readmission performance; and to identify patient and hospital characteristics associated with DHR.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS:

We analyzed all-payer inpatient claims for 701 263 pediatric discharges (patients aged 0-17 years) from 177 acute care hospitals in New York State from January 1, 2005, through November 30, 2009, to identify 30-day same-hospital readmissions (SHRs), DHRs, and AHRs. Data analysis was performed from March 12, 2013, through April 6, 2015. We compared excess readmission ratios (calculated per the Medicare formula) using SHRs and AHRs to determine what might happen if the federal formula were applied to a specific state and to evaluate how often hospitals might accurately anticipate-using data available to them-whether they would incur penalties (excess readmission ratio >1) for readmissions. Using multivariate logistic regression, we identified patient- and hospital-level predictors of DHR vs SHR.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES:

The proportion of DHRs vs SHRs, AHR and SHR rates, and excess readmissions.

RESULTS:

Different-hospital readmissions constituted 13.9% of 31 325 AHRs. At the individual hospital level, the median (interquartile range) percentage of DHRs was 21.6% (12.8%-39.1%). The median (interquartile range) adjusted AHR rate was 3.4% (3.0%-4.1%), 38.9% higher than the median adjusted SHR rate of 2.5% (2.0%-3.4%) (P < .001). Excess readmission ratios using SHRs inaccurately anticipated penalties (changed from >1 to ≤1 or vice versa) for 20 of the 177 hospitals (11.3%); all were nonchildren's hospitals and 18 of 20 (90.0%) were nonteaching hospitals. Characteristics associated with higher odds ratios (ORs) (reported with 95% CIs) of DHR in multivariate analyses included being younger (compared with age <1 year, ORs [95% CIs] for the other age categories ranged from 0.76 [0.66-0.88] to 0.85 [0.73-0.99]); being white (ORs [95% CIs] for nonwhite race/ethnicity ranged from 0.74 [0.65-0.84] to 0.88 [0.79-0.99]); having private insurance (1.14 [1.04-1.24]); having a chronic condition indicator for a mental disorder (1.33 [1.13-1.56]) or a disease of the nervous system (1.37 [1.20-1.57]) or circulatory system (1.20 [1.00-1.43]); and admission to a nonchildren's (1.62 [1.01-2.60]), urban (ORs for nonurban hospitals ranged from 0.35 [0.24-0.52] to 0.36 [0.21-0.64]), or lower-volume (0.73 [0.64-0.84]) hospital (P < .05 for each).

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE:

Different-hospital readmissions differentially affect hospitals' pediatric readmission rates and anticipated performance, making SHRs an incomplete surrogate for AHRs-particularly for certain hospital types. Failing to incorporate DHRs into readmission measurement may impede quality assessment, anticipation of penalties, and quality improvement.