Risk-Adjusted 30-Day All-Cause Readmission Rate

The existing NQF-endorsed measure provides a means for determining the risk-adjusted readmission rate for a selected adult target population and can be applied for any desired timeframe. Readmission rate is defined as the percentage of acute inpatient discharges during the measurement period followed by an acute inpatient admission for any diagnosis to any hospital within 30 days

We are proposing to change the measure and offer a risk factor approach. This method allows for calculation of a risk-adjusted readmission rate for use in two different ways: 1) retrospective analysis of hospital (or other study population) performance determination and 2) in a real-time Electronic Health Record (EHR) environment, analysis to determine the readmission risk factor for each inpatient admission.