Can Hospital Readmissions Be Explained by Patient Status?

​Hospital quality plays a role in determining 30-day readmissions that cannot be explained by patient characteristics, especially in best- and worst-performing groups, according to a study in the September 14, 2017, New England Journal of Medicine. The authors reviewed the cases of more than 37,000 patients age 65 and older who were admitted twice at different hospitals for similar diagnoses more than a month but less than a year apart. Among all patients, readmissions were more likely to occur among women than men (55.7% versus 44.3%) and, perhaps unsurprisingly, among individuals with low socioeconomic status (75.5%).