Some quotes from Burke, Robert E., Donzé, Jacques, Schnipper, Jeffrey L. (2013). Contribution of psychiatric illness and substance abuse to 30-day readmission risk. Journal of Hospital Medicine:
- [P]ublished studies [on hospital readmissions] have not typically focused on patients who are cognitively impaired, psychiatrically ill, have low health or English literacy, or have poor social supports, all of whom may represent a substantial fraction of readmitted patients.2–5
- Psychiatric disease, in particular, may contribute to increased readmission risk for nonpsychiatric (medical) illness, and is associated with increased utilization of healthcare resources.6–11
- The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the role of psychiatric illness and substance abuse in unselected medical patients to determine their relative contributions to 30-day all-cause readmissions (ACR) and potentially avoidable readmissions (PAR).
- Our data suggest that patients treated during a hospitalization for depression and for schizophrenia are at higher risk for potentially avoidable 30-day readmissions, whereas those prescribed more psychiatric medications as outpatients are at increased risk for all-cause readmissions.
- Our predictors of interest included the overall prevalence of a psychiatric diagnosis or diagnosis of substance abuse, the presence of specific psychiatric diagnoses, and prescription of psychiatric medications.
This was a study of patients discharged from Brigham and Women’s Hospital between 1 July 2009 and 30 June 2010.
I thank Brad Flansbaum for the tip.
