Table 1 Patient and index admission characteristics: unplanned readmissions within 1 day versus 2–28 days
Patient and index admission characteristics | Discharges | Unplanned readmission ≤1 days (n = 170) | Unplanned readmission 2–28 days (n = 1358) | p | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
n | n | % | n | % | ||
Male gender | 685 | 82 | 48.2 | 755 | 44.4 | 0.307 |
Emergency admission# | 1109 | 131 | 77.1 | 978 | 72.0 | 0.138 |
Chronic illness | 800 | 81 | 47.6 | 719 | 52.9 | 0.224 |
Comorbidities (Charlson Index ≥1) | 39 | 3 | 1.8 | 36 | 2.8 | 0.468 |
Patient group | ||||||
• Obstetric | 79 | 9 | 5.3 | 70 | 5.2 | 0.944 |
• Paediatric | 57 | 15 | 8.8 | 42 | 3.1 | < 0.001 |
• Surgical | 255 | 24 | 14.1 | 231 | 17.0 | 0.359 |
• Medical | 1137 | 122 | 71.8 | 1015 | 74.7 | 0.427 |
Admission source | ||||||
• Home | 1442 | 160 | 94.1 | 1282 | 94.4 | 0.889 |
• Nursing home | 36 | 5 | 2.9 | 31 | 2.3 | 0.604 |
• Hospital transfer | 45 | 4 | 2.4 | 41 | 3.0 | 0.631 |
Complications during index admission | 1155 | 133 | 78.2 | 1022 | 75.3 | 0.417 |
Hospital admissions in last 6 months | 773 | 103 | 60.6 | 663 | 48.8 | 0.005 |
ED attendances in last 6 months | 752 | 71 | 41.8 | 681 | 50.1 | 0.047 |
Readmission - like DRG | 724 | 101 | 59.4 | 623 | 45.9 | 0.001 |
Index LOS greater than State average for DRG | 389 | 35 | 20.6 | 354 | 26.1 | 0.135 |
Discharge at weekend | 300 | 47 | 27.6 | 253 | 18.6 | 0.006 |
Index admission - SSU | 366 | 61 | 35.9 | 305 | 22.5 | < 0.001 |
Index admission - AMU | 305 | 26 | 8.5 | 279 | 20.5 | 0.104 |
Discharge destination | ||||||
• Transitional care | 6 | 2 | 1.2 | 4 | 0.3 | 0.107 |
• Left against advice | 20 | 6 | 3.5 | 14 | 1.0 | 0.010 |
• Private home | 1336 | 149 | 87.6 | 1187 | 87.4 | 0.936 |
• Aged care | 49 | 5 | 3.9 | 44 | 3.2 | 0.820 |
Age | ||||||
• 0 to 17 years | 58 | 15 | 8.8 | 43 | 3.2 | 0.001 |
• 18 to 64 years | 697 | 87 | 51.2 | 610 | 44.9 | 0.134 |
• 65 to 84 years | 566 | 53 | 31.2 | 513 | 37.8 | 0.104 |
• 85 and over | 207 | 15 | 8.8 | 192 | 14.1 | 0.058 |