The performance of US hospitals as reflected in risk-standardized 30-day mortality and readmission rates for medicare beneficiaries with pneumonia.
BACKGROUND
Pneumonia is a leading cause of hospitalization and death in the elderly, and remains the subject of both local and national quality improvement efforts.


OBJECTIVE
To describe patterns of hospital and regional performance in the outcomes of elderly patients with pneumonia.


METHODS
Cross-sectional study using hospital and outpatient Medicare claims between 2006 and 2009.


METHODS
A total of 4,813 nonfederal acute care hospitals in the United States and its organized territories.


METHODS
Hospitalized fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries age 65 years and older who received a principal diagnosis of pneumonia.


METHODS
None.


METHODS
Hospital and regional level risk-standardized 30-day mortality and readmission rates.


RESULTS
Of the 1,118,583 patients included in the mortality analysis 129,444 (11.6%) died within 30 days of hospital admission. The median (Q1, Q3) hospital 30-day risk-standardized mortality rate for patients with pneumonia was 11.1% (10.0%, 12.3%), and despite controlling for differences in case mix, ranged from 6.7% to 20.9%. Among the 1,161,817 patients included in the readmission analysis 212,638 (18.3%) were readmitted within 30 days of hospital discharge. The median (Q1, Q3) 30-day risk-standardized readmission rate was 18.2% (17.2%, 19.2%) and ranged from 13.6% to 26.7%. Risk-standardized mortality rates varied across hospital referral regions from a high of 14.9% to a low of 8.7%. Risk-standardized readmission rates varied across hospital referral regions from a high of 22.2% to a low of 15%.


CONCLUSIONS
Risk-standardized 30-day mortality and, to a lesser extent, readmission rates for patients with pneumonia vary substantially across hospitals and regions and may present opportunities for quality improvement, especially at low performing institutions and areas.
Lindenauer
Peter K
PK
Center for Quality of Care Research, Baystate Medical Center, Springfield, Massachusetts 01199, USA. peter.lindenauer@baystatehealth.org
Bernheim
Susannah M
SM
Grady
Jacqueline N
JN
Lin
Zhenqiu
Z
Wang
Yun
Y
Wang
Yongfei
Y
Merrill
Angela R
AR
Han
Lein F
LF
Rapp
Michael T
MT
Drye
Elizabeth E
EE
Normand
Sharon-Lise T
SL
Krumholz
Harlan M
HM
D000368:Aged; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D018588:Fee-for-Service Plans / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017052:Hospital Mortality / Q000639:trends*; D006761:Hospitals / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D006278:Medicare / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000379:methods; D010359:Patient Readmission / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011014:Pneumonia / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000401:mortality* / Q000628:therapy; D018570:Risk Assessment; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology