Avoidable readmissions seem to be reduced by early follow-up visits for geriatric patients discharged from hospital.

PURPOSE

The aim of this study was to look specifically at patients readmitted in our previously published study. We wanted to assess the percentage of avoidable readmissions among patients receiving an early geriatric follow-up visit compared to a control group receiving usual care.

METHOD

The original population was geriatric patients primarily admitted to hospital with one of nine medical diagnoses and included in a quasi randomized controlled trial. They received either an early geriatric follow-up visit or usual care after hospital discharge. Only patients with an unplanned readmission were included in this subgroup analysis. Medical records of the readmitted patients were assessed by two reviewers. Each readmission was classified as either avoidable or unavoidable. An avoidable readmission was defined as being clinically related to index admissions.

RESULTS

Between June 2014 and November 2015, 2076 patients were included in the original study. Of these, 216 patients were readmitted. Almost half of avoidable readmissions happened during the first week after hospital discharge. Thirty-four (41%) of 83 readmissions in the intervention group were assessed as avoidable compared to 72 (54%) of 133 readmissions in the control group (p = 0.06).

CONCLUSION

An early follow-up visit after hospital discharge seems to reduce avoidable readmissions among geriatric patients.