Preventability of Early Versus Late Hospital Readmissions
Authors: Akihiro Mine, Soichiro Ikeda, Tetsuya Makiishi, Rie Matsushita
Journal: Annals of Internal Medicine (2019)

Letters5 February 2019Preventability of Early Versus Late Hospital ReadmissionsAkihiro Mine, MD, Soichiro Ikeda, MD, Tetsuya Makiishi, MD, and Rie Matsushita, MDAkihiro Mine, MDNara Medical University, Kashihara, Japan (A.M.)Search for more papers by this author, Soichiro Ikeda, MDOsaka Medical College, Takatsuki City, Japan (S.I.)Search for more papers by this author, Tetsuya Makiishi, MDSaiseikai Shiga Hospital, Ritto, Japan (T.M.)Search for more papers by this author, and Rie Matsushita, MDKikugawa General Hospital, Kikugawa, Japan (R.M.)Search for more papers by this authorAuthor, Article, and Disclosure Informationhttps://doi.org/10.7326/L18-0608 SectionsAboutFull TextPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail TO THE EDITOR:Graham and colleagues (1) concluded that early readmissions were more likely to be preventable and amenable to hospital-based interventions than late readmissions. Our evaluation led us to determine that this article will have a great effect on the current health care system. However, we have concerns about the analysis and interpretation of the results.First, the analysis did not consider some potential confounding factors. According to the article, the results were statistically adjusted only for hospital site, patient age, and all process-of-care variables. Other patient characteristics might also affect the rehospitalization rate. Several previous studies have shown ...References1. Graham KL, Auerbach AD, Schnipper JL, Flanders SA, Kim CS, Robinson EJ, et al. Preventability of early versus late hospital readmissions in a national cohort of general medicine patients. Ann Intern Med. 2018;168:766-74. [PMID: 29710243]. doi:10.7326/M17-1724 LinkGoogle Scholar2. Krumholz HM, Lin Z, Keenan PS, Chen J, Ross JS, Drye EE, et al. Relationship between hospital readmission and mortality rates for patients hospitalized with acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, or pneumonia. JAMA. 2013;309:587-93. [PMID: 23403683] doi:10.1001/jama.2013.333 CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar3. Joynt KE, Orav EJ, Jha AK. Thirty-day readmission rates for Medicare beneficiaries by race and site of care. JAMA. 2011;305:675-81. [PMID: 21325183] doi:10.1001/jama.2011.123 CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar4. Saab D, Nisenbaum R, Dhalla I, Hwang SW. Hospital readmissions in a community-based sample of homeless adults: a matched-cohort study. J Gen Intern Med. 2016;31:1011-8. [PMID: 27197973] doi:10.1007/s11606-016-3680-8 CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar Author, Article, and Disclosure InformationAffiliations: Nara Medical University, Kashihara, Japan (A.M.)Osaka Medical College, Takatsuki City, Japan (S.I.)Saiseikai Shiga Hospital, Ritto, Japan (T.M.)Kikugawa General Hospital, Kikugawa, Japan (R.M.)Disclosures: Authors have disclosed no conflicts of interest. Forms can be viewed at www.acponline.org/authors/icmje/ConflictOfInterestForms.do?msNum=L18-0608. PreviousarticleNextarticle Advertisement FiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsSee AlsoPreventability of Early Versus Late Hospital Readmissions in a National Cohort of General Medicine Patients Kelly L. Graham , Andrew D. Auerbach , Jeffrey L. Schnipper , Scott A. Flanders , Christopher S. Kim , Edmondo J. Robinson , Gregory W. Ruhnke , Larissa R. Thomas , Sunil Kripalani , Eduard E. Vasilevskis , Grant S. Fletcher , Neil J. Sehgal , Peter K. Lindenauer , Mark V. Williams , Joshua P. Metlay , Roger B. Davis , Julius Yang , Edward R. Marcantonio , and Shoshana J. Herzig Preventability of Early Versus Late Hospital Readmissions Yuji Inagaki , Masaki Maruta , Yasushi Nakano , and Jun Higuchi Preventability of Early Versus Late Hospital Readmissions Kazuya Nagasaki , Yutaro Akiyama , Mikio Hayashi , and Hideki Mori Preventability of Early Versus Late Hospital Readmissions Kelly L. Graham , Andrew D. Auerbach , and Shoshana J. Herzig Preventability of Early Versus Late Hospital Readmissions Gigi Nickas Preventability of Early Versus Late Hospital Readmissions David B. Edwards Preventability of Early Versus Late Hospital Readmissions Tetsuo Takata and Yuki Katoka Metrics 5 February 2019Volume 170, Issue 3Page: 218KeywordsConflicts of interestDisclosureFactor analysisHealth careMedical dialysisRacial and ethnic issues ePublished: 5 February 2019 Issue Published: 5 February 2019 Copyright & PermissionsCopyright © 2019 by American College of Physicians. All Rights Reserved.PDF downloadLoading ...