title: [Analysis of the causes and potential avoidability of readmissions in an acute patients' hospital].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Rates of hospital readmissions are used as indicators of quality of health care. Yet specific causes of readmissions have not been sufficiently studied and an unified definition of such an indicator is lacking. Our goal was to determine the causes and potential avoidability of readmissions in our hospital and to identify a suitable definition of this indicator.
  
  
  METHODS
  
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross sectional study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Hospital Costa del Sol (Marbella, Málaga). Subjects of study: Random sample of hospital discharges followed by a new admission within the next 6 months (n = 363).
  
  
  METHODS
  Determination of the causes and potential avoidability of readmissions, by means of a peer-review of medical records. Descriptive and logistic regression analysis of the variables contained in the Minimum Basic Data Set (MBDS) and related to the avoidability of readmissions.
  
  
  RESULTS
  19% (95% CI: 15.0-23.0) of hospital readmissions within 6 months after hospital discharge were attributed to potentially avoidable situations if the applied medical care had been modified during the previous episode. This figure reached 37% (95% CI: 27.4-47.3) for surgical services, 13% (95% CI: 8.7-17.6) for medical services and 12% (95% CI: 2.9-20.6) for obstetrics. The MBDS variables related to the potential avoidability of readmissions were, for the whole hospital, 1) the shorter interval from the previous discharge and 2) the difference of diagnosis between both episodes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Most hospital readmissions are due to non-avoidable situations if the applied medical care had been modified during the previous episode. In order to detect potentially avoidable situations, definitions of readmission rates should only include early readmissions with a chief diagnosis other than that in the previous admission.
authors.affiliation: Direccción de sistemas de Información, Hospital Costa del Sol, Departamento de Medicina Preventiva y Salud Pública, Facultad de Medicina, Málaga, Spain. ajpuente@hcs.es
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jiménez-Puente
authors.forename: Javier
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: García-Alegría
authors.forename: Jorge
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gómez-Aracena
authors.forename: Luis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hidalgo-Rojas
authors.forename: Luisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lorenzo-Nogueiras
authors.forename: Joaquín
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fernández-Crehuet-Navajas
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010359:Patient Readmission / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*