Evaluation of 30-Day Unplanned Hospital Readmission in a Large Teaching Hospital in Shiraz, Iran

Abstract

Background: The information about lower 30-day readmission in Iran is very limited. The current study aimed at evaluating the causes of readmission in an educational hospital based on LACE index. Methods: It was a case-control study evaluating the causes of readmission of the patients from February 2014 till February 2015 (12 months) in a large teaching hospital in Shiraz, Iran. Data were extracted from health information system (HIS) and after removing the planed readmission, the rest of data were examined according to 4 variables of LACE index; in addition to the season of admission, rate of preclinical requests, and patients’ living area. Data were transferred into Stata software version 11.0, according to the conditional regression analysis. Results: Results showed that 66 patients were readmitted during this time. In addition, having history of chronic non-communicable diseases such as hypertension (HTN), diabetes mellitus (DM), chronic kidney disease (CKD) (here called internal problem) (P = 0.04), surgical procedure (P = 0.03), and rate of paraclinical requests (P = 0.04) associated with readmission. Conclusions: It is necessary to consider the patients with internal history, surgical procedure, and more paraclinical requirement. In addition, physicians should be educated to give more consideration to these groups.