More patients bouncing in and out of Australian hospitals

 25-Jun-15, The Sydney Morning Herald

Hospital readmission rates are up to 40 per cent higher than previously believed, according to new data, raising questions about whether patients are being discharged too early.

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The NSW Auditor-General warned in April that the unplanned readmission rate of 6.8 per cent was too high and climbing, despite various attempts to bring it down.

But the real number of people who limp back into acute care is even larger, because the Auditor General's data did not capture people who returned to a different hospital from where they were orginally treated, nor those who returned to acute care from rehabilitation within the same hospital.

The NSW Bureau of Health Information's chief exec Jean-Frederic Levesque said although some readmissions were unavoidable, patient care could be improved or systems made more efficient.

"It's really for the hospitals to look at the numbers and identify whether the care under their control can be improved", he said.

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