This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Patients frequently readmitted to hospital often have psychiatric diagnosis
The most common diagnosis among patients readmitted to the hospital three or more times in a 3-year span was a psychiatric disorder, according to findings recently published in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine.
“Although the characteristics of readmitted patients associated with a family medicine inpatient service have been reported, the characteristics between groups of patients based on differing readmission rates have not been studied,” Maribeth Porter, MD, MSCR, of the department of community health and family medicine at the University of Florida and colleagues wrote.
Researchers characterized 2,621 unique patients into one of three groups: hospital users without readmission (n = 1,410); hospital users with low-frequency readmissions (n = 897; one to two readmissions in any given year, excluding the admission that led to diagnosis), and hospital users with high-frequency readmissions (n = 314; three or more readmissions in any given year excluding the admission that led to diagnosis).
Study co-author Peter J. Carek, MD, MS, of the department of community health and medicine at the University of Florida noted similarities among the patients.
“The group of patients who experience three or more readmissions to the hospital in a calendar are associated with several characteristics: younger age; single; have psychiatric, substance abuse, or chronic pain diagnosis; and longer medication and problem list,” he told Healio Primary Care Today.
Porter and colleagues found patients in the high-frequency readmission group more commonly had a psychiatric (n = 174), followed by substance abuse (n = 56), and chronic pain diagnosis (n = 37). The primary discharge diagnoses were similar among all groups.
Carek noted the findings have several take-home messages for primary care physicians.
“On an individual patient level, patients with the characteristics noted may require additional or different interventions upon discharge. On a more global level, physicians should look at patients with specific characteristics rather than a specific disease state when addressing overall readmission rates,” he said in the interview. – by Janel Miller
Disclosures : The authors declare no relevant financial disclosures.