Why the study?
Do pediatric mental health admissions have higher 30-day readmission rates compared to non-mental health admissions?
Do pediatric mental health admissions have higher 30-day readmission rates compared to non-mental health admissions?
Pediatric mental health admissions are associated with significantly higher 30-day readmission rates compared to non-mental health admissions, with substantial hospital-level variation.
May warrant targeted prevention after pediatric MH admissions; leaves open effective strategies amid hospital variation.
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Reducing readmissions is a major health care system goal. There is a gap in our understanding of pediatric readmission patterns after mental health (MH) admissions. With this study, we aimed to characterize the prevalence of readmissions after MH admissions, to identify patient-level factors and costs associated with readmissions, and to assess variation in readmission rates across hospitals. METHODS: Using the 2014 Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project all-payer Nationwide Readmissions Database, we conducted a retrospective cohort analysis of 253 309 admissions for 5- to 17-year-olds at acute-care hospitals in 22 states. We calculated 30-day unplanned readmission rates, lengths of stay, and costs by primary admission diagnosis. We used hierarchical regression models to assess differences in readmission rates by patient characteristics, primary diagnoses, and comorbid chronic conditions, and to estimate the variation in case mix-adjusted rates across hospitals. RESULTS: .001). CONCLUSIONS: The 30-day readmission rate was significantly higher after MH than non-MH admissions. Adjusted MH readmission rates varied substantially among hospitals, suggesting potential room for improvement.
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Feng et al. (2017) studied this question.