Validation of Patient and Nurse Short Forms of the Readiness for Hospital Discharge Scale and Their Relationship to Return to the Hospital

OBJECTIVE: To validate patient and nurse short forms for discharge readiness assessment and their associations with 30-day readmissions and emergency department (ED) visits. DATA SOURCES/STUDY SETTING: A total of 254 adult medical-surgical patients and their discharging nurses from an Eastern US tertiary hospital between May and November, 2011. STUDY DESIGN: Prospective longitudinal design, multinomial logistic regression analysis. DATA COLLECTION/EXTRACTION METHODS: Nurses and patients independently completed an eight-item Readiness for Hospital Discharge Scale on the day of discharge. Patient characteristics, readmissions, and ED visits were electronically abstracted. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Nurse assessment of low discharge readiness was associated with a six- to nine-fold increase in readmission risk. Patient self-assessment was not associated with readmission; neither was associated with ED visits. CONCLUSIONS: Nurse discharge readiness assessment should be added to existing strategies for identifying readmission risk.