Age, Cognitive Score, Help with Activities of Daily Living Linked to Higher Readmission Rates

​Hospitals with the highest rates of unplanned 30-day readmissions are more likely to have patients with certain characteristics that are not accounted for by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) than are hospitals with the lowest rates of unplanned 30-day readmissions, according to a study published online September 14, 2015, in JAMA Internal Medicine. The authors evaluated more than 33,000 index admissions from among more than 8,700 Medicare beneficiaries as well as a separate group of 8,000 admissions from 3,400 beneficiaries, all of which occurred between 2010 and 2012. They evaluated the patients based on 29 characteristics not accounted for by CMS in risk adjusting, and found 22 characteristics that were associated with increased risk of readmission.