Hospital Mortality and Readmission Rates: True–True, Unrelated

In an effort to improve hospital quality, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) publicly reports hospital 30-day, all-cause, risk-standardized mortality and 30-day, all-cause, risk-standardized readmission rates for patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI), heart failure (HF), and pneumonia. Few data exist about the association between these two measures. The possibility of an inverse relation (e.g., lowering inpatient mortality leads to discharge of sicker patients and higher readmission rates) is concerning.

Researchers examined hospital admissions of Medicare beneficiaries with principal diagnoses of AMI, HF, or pneumonia between 2005 and 2008. Median risk-standardized mortality was 17% for AMI, 11% for HF, and 11% for…