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Reducing readmission after procedures is considered by Medicare to be an important indicator of quality performance and one of the goals for reducing healthcare expenditures. Using the 2013 Nationwide Readmissions Database, investigators identified 12,221 Medicare patients who received transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) and survived the index hospitalization, of whom 2188 (17.9%) were readmitted within 30 days.
The median time to readmission was 10 days. The readmission rate varied greatly among hospitals; in those performing 10 or more TAVRs annually, the rate ranged from 0 to 50% (interquartile range, 12.6%–23.4%). About 62% of readmissions were due to noncardiac reasons; heart failure was the most frequent cardiac cause of read…