Michael Cary, Victoria Goode, Nancy Crego, Deirdre Thornlow, Beth Merwin and ABSN alumni Kayla Baba and Scarlet Fellingham recently published an article entitled "Hospital Readmissions among Total Hip Replacement Patients in 2009 and 2014" in the Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Co-authors include experts from Durham Veterans Affairs Medical enter and Duke University School of Medicine. 

Abstract

Objective: To document changes in 30-day hospital readmission rates and causes for returning to the hospital for care among THR patients in US hospitals in 2009 and 2014.

Design: Cross-sectional, retrospective descriptive. We used data from the Nationwide Readmissions Database (NRD) which is drawn from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) net – sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

Setting: The AHRQ database, known as NRD, is based on a 20% sample of all hospital discharges in the nation.

Participants: THR patients (identified as ICD-9-CM procedure code 81.51) in 2009 (N=31,232) and (N = 32,863) in 2014.

Interventions: Not applicable.

Main outcome measure: 30-day hospital readmission.

Results: Compared to 2009, overall rates of 30-day readmissions after THR decreased by 1.3n percent in 2014. The decrease in readmission rates varied by groups with lesser improvements seen among THR patients who were younger, with private insurance, residing in lower-income and rural communities. Device complications were the leading cause for readmission among THR patients, increasing from 19.8 percent in 2009 to 23.9 percent in 2014.