Emergency departments can affect hospital readmission rates, massive EHR study shows

A study analyzing the electronic health records of nearly 2 million Medicare beneficiaries found that some hospitals are better than others at preventing post-surgical readmissions from the emergency department. The study, published in the Journal of Surgical Research, sought to examine whether hospitals with high readmission rates also have high rates of post-discharge emergency department visits. Although risk-standardized, 30-day post-discharge readmission rates varied widely across hospitals, the rates of emergency department visits after surgery were fairly similar. This suggests that some emergency departments and their affiliated providers may deliver care that prevents readmissions without an increased short-term risk of readmission following ED discharge.