Are Readmission Rates The Best Measure of Hospital Quality?

Readmission rates are one of the top measures of hospital quality, with most hospitals even putting their revenue on the line if they have excess hospital readmissions. However, a group of doctors argues in a JAMA Viewpoint article that it is time to move past readmission rates as an indicator of hospital quality and deemphasize value-based payment models that make it a central measure.

“[W]e argue that the persistent focus on readmissions during the past decade, although undoubtedly leading to some improvements in care, has had minimal demonstrable benefit,” writes Peter Cram, MD, MBA, of the University of Texas Medical Branch and University of Toronto, Robert M. Wachter, MD, of the University of California’s Department of Medicine, and Bruce E. Landon, MD, MBA, of Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Cram, Landson, and Wachter add that the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP), a Medicare-run initiative that penalizes hospitals for excess readmissions, has “distracted clinicians and health system leaders from other crucial quality concerns.”

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