Dive Brief:
- A new study from the journal Pediatrics concluded nearly 30% of pediatric readmissions may have been preventable at Boston Children’s Hospital between December 2012 and February 2013.
- The study was based on a review of medical records and interviews with the clinicians and parents of 305 children who had been readmitted to the hospital within 30 days of discharge, excluding any planned readmissions.
- Researchers found overall, 6.5% of those patients were readmitted and that 29.5% of those readmissions were potentially preventable, with hospital-related factors playing a role in three-quarters of the cases.
Dive Insight:
The study sought to answer questions around the readmissions of children, given that the majority of discussion around readmissions -- and how they relate to hospital quality -- focuses on older patients.
That's because Medicare imposes financial penalties on hospitals for high readmissions, but even though there is no federally imposed penalty for pediatric readmissions, a growing number of states are implementing them, Kaiser Health News noted.
The most frequent causes for readmissions included issues around postoperative complications, hospital-acquired conditions, and patient assessments, with clinicians and family members tending to be too optimistic.
“One of the things we need to improve upon is engaging families at the time of discharge around how we’re feeling and how they’re feeling about the status of the child at that point in time,” KHN quoted lead study author Dr. Sara Toomey.
Fewer issues were related to the patient at 39.2% or the primary care physician at 14.5%, the study found. Some readmissions were a result of multiple factors, bringing the total above 100%.