Hospital Readmission Rates Outcome of Care Measures
The following explanation of hospital readmission rates is provided on the Hospital Compare website provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
"Readmission is when patients who have had a recent stay in the hospital go back into a hospital again. The information on this website shows how often patients are readmitted within 30 days of discharge from a previous hospital stay for heart attack, heart failure, or pneumonia. Patients may have been readmitted back to the same hospital or to a different hospital or acute care facility. They may have been readmitted for the same condition as their recent hospital stay, or for a different reason.
This website shows how different hospitals’ rates of readmission for heart attack, heart failure, and pneumonia patients compared to the U.S. National Rate. You can see whether the 30-day risk-adjusted rate of readmission for a hospital is lower (better) than the national rate, no different than the national rate, or higher (worse) than the national rate, given how sick patients were when they were admitted to the hospital. For some hospitals, the number of cases is too small (fewer than 25) to reliably tell how well the hospital is performing, so no comparison to the national rate is shown.”
http://hospitalcompare.hhs.gov/
From the website link above:
- Select the location – zip code or city, state
- Click on “Find Hospitals”
- Select up to three hospitals to compare
- Click on “Compare”
- Select “Outcome of Care Measures” on left side of screen
- Scroll down to “Hospital Readmission Rates Outcome of Care Measures”
- Select “View Graphs” or “View Tables”
To find readmission rates for just one hospital:
- Select hospital location - zip code or city, state
- Click on “Find Hospitals”
- Scroll down to hospital and click on name
- Select “Outcome of Care Measures” on left side of screen
- Scroll down to “Hospital Readmission Rates Outcome of Care Measures”
- Select “View Graphs”