title: Residents examine factors associated with 30-day, same-cause hospital readmissions on an internal medicine service.
abstract: In recent years, there has been increased interest in stemming the tide of hospital readmissions in an attempt to improve quality of care. This study presents the Phase I results of a resident-led quality improvement initiative to determine the percentage of and risk factors for same-cause readmissions (SCRs; defined as hospital readmission within 30 days of hospital discharge for treatment of the same condition) to the internal medicine service of a multispecialty teaching hospital in central Texas. Results indicate that patients diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease/asthma or anemia may be at increased risk for SCRs. Those patients who are insured by Medicaid and those who require assistance from social services also demonstrated an increased risk for SCRs. This study appears to be the first resident-led initiative in the field to examine 30-day SCRs to an internal medicine service for demographic and clinical risk factors.
authors.affiliation: 1Scott & White Healthcare, Temple, TX.
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Moran
authors.forename: Colleen Y
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Colbert
authors.forename: Juhee
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: Joshua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hull
authors.forename: Sabitha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rajan
authors.forename: Sunita
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Varghees
authors.forename: Alejandro C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Arroliga
authors.forename: Santosh P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Reddy
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006784:Hospitals, Teaching; D006801:Humans; D007388:Internal Medicine; D007396:Internship and Residency; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008484:Medicaid; D008485:Medical Audit; D008505:Medical Staff, Hospital; D008875:Middle Aged; D010359:Patient Readmission / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000379:methods*; D058996:Quality Improvement; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013781:Texas; D014481:United States
keywords: 30-day readmissions; Medicaid; airway disease; anemia; internal medicine; referral to social services