RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Predictors of 30-day hospital readmission: The direct comparison of number of discharge medications to the HOSPITAL score and LACE index
JF Future Healthcare Journal
JO Future Healthc J
FD Royal College of Physicians
SP 209
OP 214
DO 10.7861/fhj.2018-0039
VO 6
IS 3
A1 Robert Robinson
A1 Mukul Bhattarai
A1 Tamer Hudali
A1 Carrie Vogler
YR 2019
UL http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/6/3/209.abstract
AB Effective hospital readmission risk prediction tools exist, but do not identify actionable items that could be modified to reduce the risk of readmission. Polypharmacy has attracted attention as a potentially modifiable risk factor for readmission, showing promise in a retrospective study. Polypharmacy is a very complex issue, reflecting comorbidities and healthcare resource utilisation patterns. This investigation compares the predictive ability of polypharmacy alone to the validated HOSPITAL score and LACE index readmission risk assessment tools for all adult admissions to an academic hospitalist service at a moderate sized university-affiliated hospital in the American Midwest over a 2-year period. These results indicate that the number of discharge medications alone is not a useful tool in identifying patients at high risk of hospital readmission within 30 days of discharge. Further research is needed to explore the impact of polypharmacy as a risk predictor for hospital readmission.