Preventability of Early Versus Late Hospital Readmissions
Authors: Yuji Inagaki, Masaki Maruta, Yasushi Nakano, Jun Higuchi
Journal: Annals of Internal Medicine (2019)

Letters5 February 2019Preventability of Early Versus Late Hospital ReadmissionsYuji Inagaki, MD, Masaki Maruta, MD, Yasushi Nakano, MD, and Jun Higuchi, MD, PhDYuji Inagaki, MDKinki-Chuo Chest Medical Center, Sakai, Japan (Y.I.)Search for more papers by this author, Masaki Maruta, MDEhime University, Toon, Japan (M.M.)Search for more papers by this author, Yasushi Nakano, MDKawasaki Municipal Ida Hospital, Kawasaki, Japan (Y.N.)Search for more papers by this author, and Jun Higuchi, MD, PhDSendai City Hospital, Sendai, Japan (J.H.)Search for more papers by this authorAuthor, Article, and Disclosure Informationhttps://doi.org/10.7326/L18-0610 SectionsAboutFull TextPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail TO THE EDITOR:We appreciate Graham and colleagues' (1) efforts to conduct a comprehensive study. However, we have 2 concerns about possible confounding factors.We suspect that patients with severe illness may have been transferred from the general medicine department to the intensive care unit, resulting in their condition being drastically underestimated. The only description of disease severity in the study states that patients who were unable to communicate were excluded. We believe that this aspect may have created a serious selection bias.Our second concern relates to functional impairment. A previous study reported that rehospitalization correlated with a decrease ...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. Greysen SR, Stijacic Cenzer I, Auerbach AD, Covinsky KE. Functional impairment and hospital readmission in Medicare seniors. JAMA Intern Med. 2015;175:559-65. [PMID: 25642907] doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2014.7756 CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar3. Condon C, Lycan S, Duncan P, Bushnell C. Reducing readmissions after stroke with a structured nurse practitioner/registered nurse transitional stroke program. Stroke. 2016;47:1599-604. [PMID: 27125528] doi:10.1161/STROKEAHA.115.012524 CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar Author, Article, and Disclosure InformationAffiliations: Kinki-Chuo Chest Medical Center, Sakai, Japan (Y.I.)Ehime University, Toon, Japan (M.M.)Kawasaki Municipal Ida Hospital, Kawasaki, Japan (Y.N.)Sendai City Hospital, Sendai, Japan (J.H.)Disclosures: Authors have disclosed no conflicts of interest. Forms can be viewed at www.acponline.org/authors/icmje/ConflictOfInterestForms.do?msNum=L18-0610. 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 Kelly L. Graham , Andrew D. Auerbach , and Shoshana J. Herzig Preventability of Early Versus Late Hospital Readmissions David B. Edwards Preventability of Early Versus Late Hospital Readmissions Tetsuo Takata and Yuki Katoka Preventability of Early Versus Late Hospital Readmissions Gigi Nickas Preventability of Early Versus Late Hospital Readmissions Akihiro Mine , Soichiro Ikeda , Tetsuya Makiishi , and Rie Matsushita Preventability of Early Versus Late Hospital Readmissions Kazuya Nagasaki , Yutaro Akiyama , Mikio Hayashi , and Hideki Mori Metrics 5 February 2019Volume 170, Issue 3Page: 217-218KeywordsActivities of daily livingConflicts of interestDisclosureIntensive care units ePublished: 5 February 2019 Issue Published: 5 February 2019 Copyright & PermissionsCopyright © 2019 by American College of Physicians. All Rights Reserved.PDF downloadLoading ...