Is 30-days the right interval for your organization to be measuring readmissions? 30-day risk-standardized, all-cause, unplanned readmission rates is widely used to measure hospital penalties. Yet, many question if this is the correct interval by condition.
  • For both 7-day and 30-day readmissions, the rate of readmission was highest among patients with Medicare, followed by patients with Medicaid, no insurance, and private insurance.
  • Among Medicaid patients who were discharged with congestive heart failure or schizophrenia at the index stay, nearly 1 in 10 stays resulted in readmission within 7 days.
  • Among patients readmitted within 30 days of an index stay for septicemia or schizophrenia, uninsured patients were more likely than patients with insurance to return within 7 days.

•   In 2014, 14 percent of inpatient stays were readmitted within 30 days. More than one-third of these readmissions occurred within 7 days, reflecting a 7-day readmission rate of 5 percent.

Top 5 principal diagnoses with the highest 7-day and 30-day readmission rates, 2014
Principal diagnosis at the index stay Index stays     7-day readmissions    30-day readmissions
Rank Ratea Rank Ratea
Total inpatient stays 27,698,101 – 5.0 – 13.9
Schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders 374,097 1 9.0 2 22.9
Alcohol-related disorders 340,076 2 7.5 4 21.5
Congestive heart failure; non-hypertensive 795,709 3 7.4 1 23.2
Heart valve disorders 117,788 4 7.3 14 18.4
Hypertension with complications, secondary hypertension 223,396 5 7.2 6 20.9

a Rate per 100 index inpatient stays

Source: AHRQ

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