Study Examines Hospital Readmission Rates for Spine Surgery Patients

When hospital patients have to be readmitted soon after discharge, it makes hospitals look bad. A high readmission rate also can result in reduced Medicare reimbursements. But a new study of spine surgery patients has discovered that the standard method used to calculate readmission rates is a misleading indicator of hospital quality. Loyola University Medical Center neurosurgeon Beejal Y. Amin, MD, and colleagues found that 25 percent of the readmissions of spine surgery patients were not due to true quality-of-care issues.

“We have identified potential pitfalls in the current calculation of readmission rates,” Amin says. “We are working on modifying the algorithm to make it more clinically relevant.”

Medicare is trying to improve patient care by penalizing hospitals with poor outcomes. One key outcomes measure is the readmissions rate. Medicare may begin to withhold reimbursements to hospitals with excessively high readmission rates.

Study results appear in the February 2013 issue of the Journal of Neurosurgery. For more information, click here to read the full release.