Readmission Rates

Tracking the number of patients who experience unplanned readmissions to a hospital after a previous hospital stay is another category of data used to judge the quality of hospital care. One example of an unplanned readmission would be a patient who is readmitted to the hospital for a surgical wound infection that occurred following his/her initial hospital stay. It is important to note that there are several situations that can lead to unplanned hospital readmissions. Readmissions may or may not be related to the previous visit, and some unplanned readmissions are not preventable. Whatever the reason, insurance companies and other payors sometimes view unplanned hospital readmissions as an over-use of already stretched healthcare dollars.

How Hospital Readmissions are Measured and Evaluated

Depending on the reporting source for hospital readmissions, you may see information defining readmissions as any admission to the same hospital occurring within 7, 15 or 30 days after discharge from the initial visit. At Mayo Clinic, we define hospital readmission as follows: when the patient is admitted to a hospital within seven days after being discharged from an earlier hospital stay. The standard benchmark used by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is the 7 day readmission rate. Rates at the 75th percentile or lower are considered optimal by CMS

Patients transferred to another hospital for longer-term care will not count as a readmission. A hospital's readmission rate is calculated by dividing the total number of patients readmitted within seven days of discharge by the total number of hospital discharges.

Hospital Readmissions at Mayo Clinic

Mayo Clinic has initiated several quality improvement efforts to focus on the care of our hospital patients while in the hospital as well as improvement efforts focused on effective and safe discharge plans. Good discharge plans can help reduce the rate of unplanned readmissions by giving patients the care instructions they need after a hospital stay and by helping patients recognize symptoms that may require immediate medical attention.

A low score is good. Check/uncheck the legend icons to view/hide data.

A low score is good. Check/uncheck the legend icons to view/hide data.

A low score is good. Check/uncheck the legend icons to view/hide data.