Virtual nursing implementation and 30-day patient readmissions: a multi-site study

Fig. 1. Thirty-day emergency department readmission rates with 95% confidence intervals by subgroup for virtual nursing and in-person discharge encounters. 30-day emergency department readmission rates are shown for patient encounters discharged through the virtual nursing model and through traditional in-person discharge. Pink circles and horizontal lines indicate the readmission rate and 95% confidence interval for the virtual nursing discharge group. Blue circles and horizontal lines indicate the readmission rate and 95% confidence interval for the traditional in-person discharge group. The right-hand table reports the readmission rate, 95% confidence interval, and P-value for each subgroup analysis. Subgroups include overall encounters and strata defined by Emergency Severity Index level, hospital region, age group, race, ethnicity, and payment method. Emergency Severity Index levels 2 and 3 are shown because these encounters accounted for more than 90% of the analytic sample.

Fig. 2. Event study of average treatment effects with 95% confidence intervals for 30-day emergency department readmission by months relative to virtual nursing implementation. Event-study estimates show average treatment effects in 30-day emergency department readmissions before and after virtual nursing implementation. Blue circles indicate estimated treatment effects for each month relative to implementation, and gray vertical lines indicate 95% confidence intervals. The red horizontal dashed line indicates no difference in the outcome, and the red vertical dashed line indicates the timing of virtual nursing implementation.