A Dashboard Prototype for Tracking the Impact of Diabetes on Hospital Readmissions Using a National Administrative Database

BACKGROUND: Over the past several decades, diabetes mellitus has contributed to a significant disease burden in the general population. Evidence suggests that patients with a coexisting diabetes diagnosis consume more hospital resources, and have higher readmission rates compared to those who do not. Against the backdrop of bundled-payment programs, healthcare systems cannot underestimate the importance of monitoring patient health information at the population level. METHODS: Using the data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) administrative claims database, we created a dashboard prototype to enable hospitals to examine the impact of diabetes on their all-cause readmission rates and financial implications if diabetes was present at the index hospitalization. The technical design involved loading the relevant 10th revision of International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) codes provided by the medical team and flagging diabetes patients at the claim. These patients were then tagged for readmissions within the same database. The odds ratios were determined based on data from two groups: those with diabetes at index hospitalization which include type 1 only, type 2 only, and type 1 and type 2 diabetes, plus those without diabetes at index hospitalization. RESULTS: The dashboard presents summary data of diabetes readmissions quality metrics at a national level. Users can visualize summary data of each state and compare odds ratios for readmissions as well as raw hospitalization data at their facility. Dashboard users can also view data classified by a diagnosis-related group (DRG) system. In addition to a “national” data view, for users who inquire about data specific to demographic regions, the DRG view can be further stratified at the state level or county level. At the DRG level, users can view data about the cost per readmissions for all index hospitalization with and without diabetes. CONCLUSIONS: The dashboard prototype offers users a virtual interface which displays visual data for quick interpretation, monitors changes at a population level, and enables administrators to benchmark facility data against local and national trends. This is an important step in using data analytics to drive population level decision making to ultimately improve medical systems.