The development of a uniform algorithm for hospital readmissions enables standardized benchmarking and quality improvement across statewide databases.
Hospital readmissions are an important indicator of the outcomes of care as well as a source of unnecessary health care expenditures. This study focused on development of a uniform algorithm for identification of hospital readmission data. It involved development of a uniform definition of readmissions which could be applied to multiple statewide computer databases. Through this approach, comparable readmit data were generated for use in benchmarking and quality improvement activities.
Lagoe et al. (1999) studied this question.