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Readmission rate after C. difficile discharge nearly double other discharges
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The proportion of 30-day readmissions among patients discharged after Clostridium difficile infections was nearly twice that of other patients discharged, researchers from Detroit Medical Center reported.
The researchers noted that reductions in C. difficile infections will be crucial under the Hospital-Acquired Condition Reduction Program that CMS is initiating, which will penalize hospital funding for high-rates of hospital-acquired infections.
“[C. difficile infections] are slated to be reportable in 2017,” they wrote in the American Journal of Infection Control. “Therefore, if nothing is done to try and curb [C. difficile infection] rates, health care systems may stand to face financial penalties because of high rates of hospital-acquired [C. difficile infections] and [C. difficile infection]-related readmissions for CMS-reportable conditions.”
Teena Chopra, MD, MPH, and colleagues identified patients who developed C. difficile infections during a hospital stay in 2012 using a patient discharge database. They classified patients, based on their admissions, as index admission (C. difficile discharges) and readmissions, with or without C. difficile. The researchers evaluated readmission rates, length of stay and time to readmission.
There were 51,353 all-cause discharges during the study period and 615 patients (1%) had a C. difficile diagnosis during their stay. Among all discharges, 14.4% were readmitted within 30 days of leaving the hospital. The readmission rate among C. difficile discharges was 30.1%. The average length of stay for all-cause discharge readmission was 5.6 days, and the average length of stay for C. difficile discharge readmission was 10 days for community-onset C. difficile and 12 days for hospital-onset C. difficile.
“This study highlights the impact of one hospital-acquired infection on readmission rates and calls for better infection control and antibiotic stewardship measures toward [C. difficile infection] management in the hospital,” the researchers wrote. – by Emily Shafer
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant disclosures.
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