A new study of Medicare heart-failure patients shows that while hospital stays are getting shorter and rates of death in the hospital are decreasing, the chances that a patient will end up back in the hospital have gone up.
The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, shows that between 1993 and 2006, the average hospital stay fell from 8.81 days to 6.33 days. During the same period, in-hospital deaths declined, from 8.5 percent to 4.3 percent.
But, the rate of patients returning to the hospital increased. Thirty-day readmission rates went from 17.2 percent in 1993 to 20.1 percent in 2006. And worse, deaths within 30 days of discharge went from 4.3 percent to 6.3 percent.
The authors of the study suggest that their findings could indicate that shortening hospitals stays may not in fact save money over the long-term.
Despite the main goal of reducing hospital costs, it is possible that when the hospital and short-term, non-hospital, post-discharge costs are considered, this policy failed to reduce health care expenses.
[...] by this country’s medical insurers may be creating its own backlash, reports Elise Craig of Fair Warning: A new study of Medicare heart-failure patients shows that while hospital stays are getting shorter [...]