The Futile Cycle of Hospital Readmission in Patients with Diabetes

In 2012, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) began reducing Medicare payments to hospitals with higher than expected readmissions within 30 days of discharge.1 This led to focused efforts at many institutions for identifying patients at high risk for readmission and introducing programs to ameliorate this risk.2 Current estimates indicate that 25% of patients hospitalized in the US have diabetes as a primary or secondary diagnosis.3,4 Approximately 10-20% of patients with diabetes are readmitted within 30 days of hospital discharge, with higher rates of readmission observed in those with more comorbidities.

Source: Journal of Diabetes and Its Complications - June 16, 2017 Category: Endocrinology Authors: Janya Swami, Mary Korytkowski Source Type: research