But when they took another look using more criteria on patients’ medical, social, and economic characteristics, the gap between hospitals narrowed, with lowest and highest readmission rates of 16% and 18.4%, respectively.
One limitation of the study, the authors acknowledged, is the data didn’t allow them to calculate how considering individual patient characteristics might affect readmission rates at specific hospitals.
Even so, the findings suggest that the current Medicare penalty system for readmissions may put facilities serving poor communities at a distinct financial disadvantage, Dr. Carl van Walraven, a senior scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute in Canada, noted in an editorial.
“Differences between hospitals in readmissions may be due to who is treated rather than how they’re treated,” Dr. van Walraven told Reuters Health by email.
