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. 2014 Sep;9(9):598-603.
doi: 10.1002/jhm.2226. Epub 2014 Jun 25.

Assessing preventability in the quest to reduce hospital readmissions

Julia G Lavenberg  1 , Brian Leas, Craig A Umscheid, Kendal Williams, David R Goldmann, Sunil Kripalani
Affiliations

Assessing preventability in the quest to reduce hospital readmissions

Julia G Lavenberg et al. J Hosp Med. 2014 Sep.

Abstract

Hospitals devote significant human and capital resources to eliminate hospital readmissions, prompted most recently by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) financial penalties for higher-than-expected readmission rates. Implicit in these efforts are assumptions that a significant proportion of readmissions are preventable, and preventable readmissions can be identified. Yet, no consensus exists in the literature regarding methods to determine which readmissions are reasonably preventable. In this article, we examine strengths and limitations of the CMS readmission metric, explore how preventable readmissions have been defined and measured, and discuss implications for readmission reduction efforts. Drawing on our clinical, research and operational experiences, we offer suggestions to address the key challenges in moving forward to measure and reduce preventable readmissions.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest/disclosure: Dr. Umscheid’s contribution to this project was supported in part by the National Center for Research Resources and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health, through Grant UL1TR000003. Dr. Kripalani receives support from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R01HL109388, and from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services under Awards 1C1CMS331006-01 and 1C1CMS330979-01. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health or Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

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