Contemporary Data About Hospital Strategies to Reduce Unplanned Readmissions

Almost one in five hospitalized Medicare beneficiaries will experience an unplanned readmission within 30-days,with an estimated cost to Medicare of more than $17 billion annually.1 In response, many hospitals have enrolled in quality collaboratives or campaigns to implement evidence-based strategies to reduce readmission rates. However, we have little information on the changes in practice that have occurred among the nation’s hospitals. Such information is important to understand hospital responses to the policy changes.