ECONOMIC REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT

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Figure 4-42
Cumulative Percent Change in Rate of
Hospital-Acquired Conditions Since 2010, 2010–2015
Cumulative Percent Change in Rate of Hospital-Acquired Conditions Since 2010
0
-10
-9
-15
-20
-17 -17
-21
-25
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Source: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; CEA calculations.
Declines in the Rate of Hospital Readmissions
Another valuable indicator of health care quality is the rate of hospital
readmissions, instances in which a patient returns to the hospital soon after
discharge. Hospital readmissions often result from the occurrence of a serious
complication after discharge, so hospital readmission rates are a useful
indicator of the health outcomes patients achieve after leaving the hospital
(Jencks, Williams, and Coleman 2009; Hines et al. 2014). Evidence suggests
that many readmissions also reflect low-quality care during the initial hospital
stay or poor planning for how a patient will receive care after discharge,
which means that readmission rates are also a useful indicator of the quality
of the care being provided during that initial stay (MedPAC 2007).
Hospital readmission rates have declined sharply in recent years.
After several years of stability, the 30-day hospital readmission rate among
Medicare patients began falling sharply starting in late 2011, as illustrated
in Figure 4-43. This decline continued at a rapid pace through early 2014,
with modest additional declines since then. The readmission rate for the
12 months that ended in July 2016 was 1.3 percentage points (7 percent)
below the average rate recorded for 2007 through 2011. Cumulatively, the
decline in hospital readmission rates from April 2010 through May 2015
corresponds to 565,000 avoided hospital readmissions (Zuckerman 2016).
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