readmission rates

• Readmission rates by Ed Tryk, 1/18/99
  
  

You probably have someone at the hospital who serves as a Quality Assurance person and who receives most of the JCAHO accreditation materials. I would check with that person to see what is available about re-admission rates. I'm sure you are well aware that readmission rates are among the dirtiest of data and are influenced by severity of illness, insurance, definition of readmission, age, etc. When I used to analyze similar data I found that it is important to know as much as possible about what you are comparing your institution to and whenever possible, try not to let people influence you into defining readmission rates as an "outcome". I apologize for the unsolicited advice, but it comes from a sincere wish to improve outcome research in psychiatric institutions!

I also recommend that you check out the outcome listserve which can be joined by emailing to:

LISTSERV@SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU

in the message body write:

SUBSCRIBE OUTCMTEN

If you have difficulty, email back channel thru BOL.

Ellen Dornelas

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