Hospital Readmission Rates Not Reliable Measure of Hospital Quality in Cardiac Surgical Care
Wednesday, April 2, 2014 - 06:01
in Health & Medicine
Hospital readmission rates are not a reliable measure of hospital quality in cardiac surgical care because they are driven by chance rather than statistically significant measurements, a new study concludes. Overall, the researchers found that readmission rates for the majority of hospitals did not reach a minimum acceptable level of reliability. The researchers also found that hospital case volume is a large determinant of the reliability of readmission rates. The more surgeries a hospital performs per year, the higher the reliability in the readmission rate.