Hospital 30-day, all-cause, risk-standardized readmission rate (RSRR) following chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) hospitalization

The outcome for this measure is 30-day readmission. We define readmission as an inpatient 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 discharged from the hospital with a principal discharge diagnosis of COPD or principal discharge diagnosis of respiratory failure with a secondary discharge diagnosis of acute exacerbation of COPD. 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.