The validity of indicators for assessing quality of care: A review of the European literature on hospital readmission rate

European Journal of Public Health

Volumn 22, Issue 4, 2012, Pages 484-491

  Fischer, Claudia ^a,b   Anema, Helen A ^a   Klazinga, Niek S ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM   (Netherlands)

^b ERASMUS MEDICAL CENTER   (Netherlands)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EUROPE; HEALTH CARE QUALITY; HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH; HOSPITAL DISCHARGE; HOSPITAL READMISSION; HUMAN; REPRODUCIBILITY; REVIEW; STANDARD; STATISTICS; TREATMENT OUTCOME;

EUROPE; HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH; HUMANS; OUTCOME AND PROCESS ASSESSMENT (HEALTH CARE); PATIENT DISCHARGE; PATIENT READMISSION; QUALITY INDICATORS, HEALTH CARE; QUALITY OF HEALTH CARE; REPRODUCIBILITY OF RESULTS;

EID: 84864556769     PISSN: 11011262     EISSN: 1464360X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/eurpub/ckr165     Document Type: Review

References (43)

1. Mainz J. Defining and classifying clinical indicators for quality improvement. Int J Qual Health Care 2003;15:523-30. (Pubitemid 37540789)
2. Worning A Mainz Klazinga et al. [Policy on quality development for the medical profession]. Ugeskr Laeger 1992;154:3523-33.
3. AHRQ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Refinement of the HCUP Quality Indicators. Available at: http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/epcsums/hcupqisum. htm (date last accessed 27 November 2010).
4. Brook R McGlynn E Shekelle PG. Defining and measuring quality of care: a perspective from US researchers. Int J Qual Health Care 2000;12:281-95. (Pubitemid 30663847)
5. Ashton C Del Junco D Souchek et al. The association between the quality of inpatient care and early readmission: a meta-analysis of the evidence. Med Care 1997;35:1044-59. (Pubitemid 127458346)
6. Ashton C Kuykendall D Johnson M et al. The association between the quality of inpatient care and early readmission. Ann Intern Med 1995;122):415-21.
7. Cakir Gammon G. Evaluating readmission rates: how can we improve? South Med J 2010;103:1079-83.
8. Ashton C Wray NP. A conceptual framework for the study of early readmission as an indicator of quality of care. Soc Sci Med 1996;43:1533-41. (Pubitemid 26397728)
9. Ashton C Kuykendall D Johnson M Wray NP. An empirical assessment of the validity of explicit and implicit process-of-care criteria for quality assessment. Med Care 1999;37:798-808.
10. Wray N Peterson N Souchek et al. Application of an analytic model to early readmission rates within the department of veterans affairs. Med Care 1997;35:768-81.
11. Weissman J Ayanian J Chasan-Taber et al. Hospital readmission and quality of care. Med Care 1999;37:490-501.
12. Hannan E Racz M Walford et al. Predictors of readmission for complications of coronary artery bypass graft surgery. JAMA 2003;290:773-80.
13. LaVela S Smith Weaver F Miskevics SA. Geographical proximity and health care utilization in veterans with SCI&D in the USA. Soc Sci Med 2004;59:2387-99. (Pubitemid 39273476)
14. Fisher E Wennberg J Stukel T Sharp SM. Hospital readmission rates for cohorts of medicare beneficiaries in boston and new haven. N Engl J Med 1994;331:989-95. (Pubitemid 24304586)
15. Romano P. Selecting indicators for patient safety at the health systems level in OECD countries. Summary of recent US experience 2007. Available at: dataoecd/44/29/39495326.pdf (14 March 2011, date last accessed).
16. Halfon Eggli Prêtre-Rohrbach et al. Validation of the potentially avoidable hospital readmission rate as a routine indicator of the quality of hospital care. Med Care 2006;44:972-81. (Pubitemid 44674029)
17. Leng G Walsh Fowkes FG Swainson CP. Is the emergency readmission rate a valid outcome indicator? Qual Health Care 1999;8:234-8.
18. Jiménez-Puente García-Alegría Jorge Gómez-Aracen et al. Readmission rate as an indicator of hospital performance: the case of Spain. Int J Tech Assess Health Care 2004;20:385-91.
19. Harboe K Anthonsen Bardram L. Validation of data and indicators in the Danish Cholecystectomy Database. Int J Qual Health Care 2009;21:160-8.
20. Luthi J Burnand McClellan W et al. Is readmission to hospital an indicator of poor process of care for patients with heart failure? Qual Saf Health Care 2004;13:46-51. (Pubitemid 38223599)
21. Bottle Aylin P. Application of AHRQ patient safety indicators to English hospital data. Qual Saf Health Care 2009;18:303-8.
22. Tromp Ravelli AC Méray et al. An efficient validation method of probabilistic record linkage including readmissions and twins. Methods Inf Med 2008;47:356-63.
23. Kossovsky M Sarasin F Bolla et al. Distinction between planned and unplanned readmissions following discharge from a department of internal medicine. Meth Inform Med 1999;38:140-3. (Pubitemid 29318649)
24. Adeyemo Radley S. Unplanned general surgical re-admissions - how man which patients and why? Ann R Coll Surg Engl 2007;89:363-7. (Pubitemid 46767040)
25. (Pubitemid 36372232)
26. Halfon Eggli Melle et al. Measuring potentially avoidable hospital readmissions. J Clin Epidemiol 2002;55:573-87. (Pubitemid 34621501)
27. Shalchi Saso Li H et al. Factors influencing hospital readmission rates after acute medical treatment. Clin Med 2009;9:426-30.
28. Pearson Skelly Wileman Masud T. Unplanned readmission to hospital: a comparison of the views of general practitioners and hospital staff. Age Ageing 2002;31:141-3. (Pubitemid 34413814)
29. Kossovsky M Sarasin F Perneger T et al. Unplanned readmissions of patients with congestive heart failure: Do they reflect in-hospital quality of care or patient characteristics? Am J Med 2000;109:386-90.
30. Clarke A. Readmission to hospital: a measure of quality or outcome? The value of readmission to hospital as a quality indicator is still debatable. Qual Saf Health Care 2004;13:10-11.
31. Heggestad Lilleeng SE. Measuring readmissions: focus on the time factor. Int J Qual Health Care 2003;15:147-54. (Pubitemid 36432378)
32. Demir Chaussalet T Xie Millard PH. Emergency readmission criterion: a technique for determining the emergency readmission time window. IEEE Trans Inf Technol Biomed 2008;12:644-9.
33. Lyratzopoulos Havely Gemmell Cook GA. Factors influencing emergency medical readmission risk in a UK district general hospital: a prospective study. BMC Emergency Med 2005;21:1.
34. Spiegelhalter DJ. Handling over-dispersion of performance indicators. Qual Saf Health Care 2005;14:347-51. (Pubitemid 41495121)
35. Maurer P Ballmer PE. Hospital readmissions - are they predictable and avoidable? Swiss Med Wkly 2004;134:606-11.
36. Mason Goldacre Meddings Woolfson J. Use of case fatality and readmission measure to compare hospital performance in gynaecology. BJOG 2006;113:695-9. (Pubitemid 43781701)
37. Rumball-Smith Hider P. The validity or readmission rate as a marker of the quality of hospital car and a recommendation for its definition. N Zealand Med J 2009;13:32-9.
38. Corrigan J Martin JB. Identification of factors associated with hospital readmission and development of a predictive model. Health Serv Res 1992;27:82-101.
39. Walraven van Bennett Jennings et al. Proportion of hospital readmissions deemed avoidable: a systematic review. CMAJ 2011;183:391-402.
40. Pronovost P Goeschel CA. Viewing health care delivery as science: challenge benefit and policy implications. Health Services Res 2010;45(5 Pt 2): 1508-22.
41. Klazinga Stronks Delnoij Verhoeff A. Indicators without a cause. Reflections on the development and use of indicators in health care from a public health perspective. Int J Qual Health Care 2001;13:433-8. (Pubitemid 33133916)
42. Stelfox T Straus E Nathens Bobranska-Artiuch B. Evidence for quality indicators to evaluate adult trauma care: a systematic review. Crit Care Med 2011;39:1-14.
43. Lingsma H Dippel D Hoeks S et al. The Netherlands Stroke Survey investigators. Variation between hospitals in patient outcome after stroke is only partly explained by differences in quality of care: results from the Netherlands Stroke Survey. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2008;79:888-94.