Predictors identified for re-hospitalisation among post-acute stroke patients

Stroke patients receiving in-patient rehabilitation are more likely to land back in the hospital within three months if they are functioning poorly, show signs of depression and lack social support according to researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) at Galveston. Hospital readmission for older adults within 30 days of discharge costs Medicare roughly $18 billion annually.
Among the first of such research to explore the risk of re-hospitalisation among this patient segment, the study is available online at The Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences. The findings are timely as effective this October hospitals will be held accountable for high short-turnaround readmission rates.
According to Dr. Kenneth Ottenbacher, Director, Center for Rehabilitation Sciences, and Associate Director, UTMB Sealy Center on Ageing, ‘by identifying clear demographic, clinical and environmental factors that lead to re-hospitalisation, we can develop meaningful quality indicators for post-acute care that target ways to improve patients’ health and contain costs by reducing the likelihood of readmission.’
Currently, more than 30 percent of stroke patients receive in-patient rehabilitation after release from acute care, he said.
‘Though we intuitively know that these patients are at highest risk for being re-hospitalised