Hospital 30-day, All-Cause, Risk-Standardized Readmission Rate (RSRR) Following Pneumonia Hospitalization

The outcome for this measure is 30-day readmissions. We define readmission as an inpatient acute care admission for any cause, with the exception of certain planned readmissions, within 30 days from the date of discharge from the index admission for patients 65 and older discharged from the hospital with a principal diagnosis of pneumonia, including aspiration pneumonia or a principal diagnosis of sepsis (not severe sepsis) with a secondary diagnosis of pneumonia (including aspiration pneumonia) coded as POA and no secondary diagnosis of severe sepsis. If a patient has more than one unplanned admission (for any reason) within 30 days after discharge from the index admission, only the first one is counted as a readmission. The measure looks for a dichotomous yes or no outcome of whether each admitted patient has an unplanned readmission within 30 days. However, if the first readmission after discharge is considered planned, any subsequent unplanned readmission is not counted as an outcome for that index admission because the unplanned readmission could be related to care provided during the intervening planned readmission rather than during the index admission.