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Table 3 Studies of preventable readmissions of cardiovascular-related index admissions and readmissions among adults, United States, 2000-2009

From: Determinants of preventable readmissions in the United States: a systematic review

Citation

Reported readmission type (and explanation if provided)

Index condition*

Readmit condition

Timeframe

Population and Setting

Design and Sample size

Data source(s)

Risk factors/associated factors

Conceptually linked admissions†

Strategy for patient linkage‡

Used multivariate statistics§

Ahmed et al [21]

Early

Congestive heart failure primary discharge diagnosis

Congestive heart failure

180 days

Congestive heart failure patients from VA medical center in TX

Retrospective cohort

(198)

Hospital databases

Patient

Decreasing temperature

Yes

No

Yes

Aujeskey et al [23]

Early

Pulmonary embolism

Any and complications of pulmonary embolism (recurrent venous thrombo-embolism and bleeding)

30 days

Patients ≥18 years in PA

Retrospective cohort

(14,426)

Pennsylvania Healthcare Cost Containment

Council database

Patient

African American (any or venous thromboembolism)

Increasing PESI risk class (any cause only)

Encounter

Medicaid

Discharge to home with supplementary care (any cause)

Left hospital against medical advice (any cause only)

Organizational

Hospital teaching status (bleeding only)

Non-Pittsburg area

Yes

Yes

Yes

Ferraris et al [46]

Early unplanned

Cardiac surgery

Any condition

30 days

Cardiac patients from single WV medical center

Prospective cohort

(2,650)

Hospital database, Interviews

Patient

Female

Diabetes

Preoperative atrial fibrillation

COPD

Renal dysfunction

Environment

Residential zip code

No

Yes

Yes||

García et al [25]

Potentially avoidable

Acute myocardial infarction

Acute myocardial infarction - related admissions

56 days to 3 years

Coronary artery disease in CA

Retrospective cohort

(683)

California Hospital Outcomes Validation

Project dataset

Patient

AMI history

Encounter

Medicaid

Less likely with CABG on admission

Yes

Yes

Yes

Hallerbach et al [50]

Early

Congestive heart failure

Congestive heart failure exacerbation admission

30 days

Congestive heart failure patients from single PA hospital

Case control

(58)

Chart review

No statistically significant factors reported

Yes

No

No

Hannan et al [27]

Early

Coronary artery bypass graft

Likely to be complications of Coronary artery bypass graft surgery

30 days

Coronary artery bypass graft surgery patients in NY

Retrospective cohort

(16,325)

New York State's Cardiac Surgery

Reporting System linked with the Statewide

Planning and Research Cooperative

System

Patient

Increasing age

Women

Body surface area

Myocardial infarction 7 days prior

Femoral disease

Congestive heart failure

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Diabetes

Hepatic failure

Dialysis

Encounter

Low annual surgeon volume

Discharge to skilled nursing or rehabilitation facility

Increasing length of stay

Organizational

High hospital risk adjusted mortality rate

Yes

Yes

Yes||

Harjai, Nunez et al [28]

Early

Heart failure

Heart failure

30 days

Heart failure patients from single LA hospital

Retrospective cohort

(576)

Hospital databases, Chart review

Encounter

Treatment with angiotensin-converting enzyme and aspirin

Yes

No

Yes

Harjai, Thompson et al [29]

Early

Heart failure and shock

Any condition or heart failure

30 days

Heart failure and shock patients from single LA hospital

Retrospective cohort

(434)

Hospital databases

Patient

COPD (any cause and HF)

No. of hospitalizations in prior 6 months (any cause and HF)

Male (HF only)

Increasing blood urea nitrogen (any cause only)

Yes

No

Yes

Howie-Esquivel and Dracup [47]

Early

Acutely decompensated heart failure

Primary diagnosis of heart failure or other cardiac cause

90 days

Heart failure patients from single CA academic medical center

Prospective cohort

(44)

Chart review

Patient

Female

Encounter

Increasing length of stay

Yes

Yes

Yes

Keenan et al [32]

Readmissions to the hospital shortly after discharge

Heart failure

Any condition

30 days

Fee for service Medicare Parts A and B nationwide

Retrospective cohort

(1,129,210)

Medicare

inpatient, outpatient, and carrier Standard Analytic Files, Medicare Enrollment Database, National Heart Failure Project database

Patient

History of coronary artery bypass graft surgery less likely

Congestive heart failure

Acute coronary syndrome

Arrhythmias

Cardiorespiratory failure and shock

Valvular and rheumatic heart disease

Vascular or circulatory disease

Chronic atherosclerosis

Other heart disease

Paralysis

Stroke

Renal failure

COPD

Diabetes

Fluid disorders

Urinary tract infections

Gastrointestinal disorders

Severe hematologic disorder

Nephritis

Cancer

Liver disease

Asthma

Pneumonia

Drug/alcohol abuse or psychosis

Fibrosis of the lung

Protein-calorie malnutrition

(validation dataset not reported)

No

Yes

Yes

Kumbhani et al [34]

Unplanned

Cardiac surgery

Related to complications of cardiac surgery

30 days and

6 months

Underwent intra- operative online monitoring of myocardial tissue pH at VA medical center in MA

Retrospective cohort

(221)

Hospital databases

Patient

Low pH at end of bypass

Postoperative atrial fibrillation

High ASA class

Preoperative ejection fraction

Encounter

Length of stay less than 6 days

Myocardial tissue pH < 6.85 at the end of bypass

Yes

Yes

Yes

Lagoe et al [35]

Non-elective and unplanned

Congestive heart failure

Same DRG as index admission

30 days

Congestive heart failure patients from multiple sites in Syracuse

Retrospective cohort

(Not reported)

New York Statewide Planning and Research

Cooperative System

Organizational

Rates varied by hospital

Yes

Yes

No

Sun et al [48]

Early

CABG surgery

Any condition

30 days

Low risk CABG patients from Single DC hospital

Prospective cohort

(2,157)

Hospital databases, Interviews

Patient

Diabetes

No

Yes

Yes

  1. * All exclusion criteria or specific diagnostic codes not reported - see original article for additional details.
  2. † Explicitly specified a biological, theoretical or conceptual model linking the readmission condition to the index condition (includes readmissions for same condition)
  3. ‡ Specified a strategy or research design to guard against loss to follow up
  4. § Used multivariate statistics
  5. ||Modeling technique did not account of non-independence of observations in analysis