The crucial factor of hospital readmissions: a retrospective cohort study of patients evaluated in the emergency department and admitted to the department of medicine of a general hospital in Italy

BACKGROUND: Early hospital readmissions, defined as rehospitalization within 30 days from a previous discharge, represent an economic and social burden for public health management. As data about early readmission in Italy are scarce, we aimed to relate the phenomenon of 30-day readmission to factors identified at the time of emergency department (ED) visits in subjects admitted to medical wards of a general hospital in Italy. METHODS: We performed a retrospective 30-month observational study, evaluating all patients admitted to the Department of Medicine of the Hospital of Ferrara, Italy. Our study compared early and late readmission: patients were evaluated on the basis of the ED admission diagnosis and classified differently on the basis of a concordant or discordant readmission diagnosis in respect to the diagnosis of a first hospitalization. RESULTS: Out of 13,237 patients admitted during the study period, 3,631 (27.4%) were readmitted; of those, 656 were 30-day rehospitalizations (5% of total admissions). Early rehospitalization occurred 12 days (median) later than previous discharge. The most frequent causes of rehospitalization were cardiovascular disease (CVD) in 29.3% and pulmonary disease (PD) in 29.7% of cases. Patients admitted with the same diagnosis were younger, had lower length of stay (LOS) and higher prevalence of CVD, PD and cancer. Age, CVD and PD were independently associated with 30-day readmission with concordant diagnosis and kidney disease with 30-day rehospitalization with a discordant diagnosis. CONCLUSIONS: Comorbid patients are at higher risk for 30-day readmission. Reduction of LOS, especially in elderly subjects, could increase early rehospitalization rates.