Why the study?
Existing hospital readmission risk prediction tools lack actionable modifiable targets, while polypharmacy represents a potentially modifiable risk factor.
Does the number of discharge medications alone predict 30-day hospital readmission as well as the HOSPITAL score and LACE index in adult hospital admissions?
Does the number of discharge medications alone predict 30-day hospital readmission as well as the HOSPITAL score and LACE index in adult hospital admissions?
The number of discharge medications alone is insufficient to predict 30-day hospital readmission compared to validated tools like the HOSPITAL score and LACE index.
Discharge medication count alone should not guide readmission risk assessment; leaves open whether it adds value to validated scores like HOSPITAL or LACE.
Effective hospital readmission risk prediction tools exist, but do not identify actionable items that could be modified to reduce the risk of readmission. Polypharmacy has attracted attention as a potentially modifiable risk factor for readmission, showing promise in a retrospective study. Polypharmacy is a very complex issue, reflecting comorbidities and healthcare resource utilisation patterns. This investigation compares the predictive ability of polypharmacy alone to the validated HOSPITAL score and LACE index readmission risk assessment tools for all adult admissions to an academic hospitalist service at a moderate sized university-affiliated hospital in the American Midwest over a 2-year period. These results indicate that the number of discharge medications alone is not a useful tool in identifying patients at high risk of hospital readmission within 30 days of discharge. Further research is needed to explore the impact of polypharmacy as a risk predictor for hospital readmission.
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Robinson et al. (2019) studied this question.
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