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Nearly 20% of hospitalized Medicare patients are readmitted within 30 days of discharge, and more than 50% of readmitted patients do not receive outpatient follow-up (JW Hosp Med Apr 1 2009). Patients with substantial comorbidities, such as heart failure or chronic lung disease, make up a large percentage of the readmitted population. Rapid outpatient evaluation after hospital discharge could prevent readmissions and might improve other outcomes. Using observational data from 225 hospitals, investigators evaluated the hospital stays of more than 30,000 older patients who were admitted with heart failure exacerbations.
Twenty-one percent of patients were readmitted within 30 days. Hospitals varied widely in the percentage of heart failure pat…