One in 5 readmitted patients after emergency general surgery go to a different hospital, which may obscure readmission as a quality metric and highlights the need to address social vulnerability and postoperative complications.
Readmission after EGS procedures is common and varies widely depending on patient factors and diagnosis categories. One in 5 readmitted patients will go to a different hospital, causing fragmentation of care and potentially obscuring the utility of readmission as a quality metric. Assisting socially vulnerable patients and reducing postoperative complications, including infections, are targets to reduce readmissions.
Havens et al. (Wed,) studied this question.