title: 28-Day emergency surgical re-admission rates as a clinical indicator of performance.
abstract: With the introduction of clinical governance, the NHS Executive has identified 28-day emergency re-admission rates as a clinical indicator to be used to assess and compare performance between NHS trusts. We undertook a 3-month retrospective audit of patients identified from the trust computer as having been re-admitted as an emergency within 28 days of discharge from the general surgical division. We wanted to examine reasons for re-admission, possible errors in coding and any preventable factors in these patients subsequently re-admitted acutely.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Hull Royal Infirmary, Hull, UK. edjcourtney1972@aol.com
authors.forename: Edward D J
authors.initials: ED
authors.lastname: Courtney
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ankrett
authors.forename: Peter T
authors.initials: PT
authors.lastname: McCollum
mesh_terms: D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000592:standards*; D003951:Diagnostic Errors; D004630:Emergencies; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006751:Hospital Information Systems / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay; D008485:Medical Audit; D008875:Middle Aged; D010359:Patient Readmission / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013503:Surgery Department, Hospital / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006113:United Kingdom