-
- Daneen R Nastars, Josè D Rojas, Kenneth J Ottenbacher, and James E Graham.
- Department of Respiratory Care, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas. danastar@utmb.edu.
- Respir Care. 2019 Aug 1; 64 (8): 931-936.
BackgroundCOPD is now included in Medicare's hospital readmission reduction program. Hospitals with excessive risk-adjusted 30-d readmission rates receive financial penalties. Race/ethnicity is not included in the risk-adjustment models. We examined whether race/ethnicity was independently associated with readmission after controlling for clinical factors and other demographic variables.MethodsWe used the 100% Medicare in-patient (Part A) files to identify patients hospitalized with COPD (MS-DRG codes 190, 191, 192) who were discharged between January 1, 2013, and September 13, 2014. The outcome measure was an unplanned readmission within 30 d of hospital discharge. We used generalized linear mixed models to test the independent effects of race/ethnicity on 30-d readmission.ResultsThe sample included 298,706 Medicare beneficiaries hospitalized for COPD: 87% white, 8% African-American, and 5% Hispanic. Mean age was 77.7 ± 7.7 y. Overall, 17.3% of subjects experienced an unplanned readmission. Whites (17.4%) and African-Americans (17.7%) had significantly higher unadjusted rates than Hispanics, and Hispanics demonstrated the lowest readmission rate (16.3%). The minority groups generally displayed higher-risk clinical profiles. After controlling for those differences, the multivariable model suggested a benefit for both minority groups in terms of readmission risk. The adjusted readmission rates for whites, African-Americans, and Hispanics were 16.6%, 15.9%, and 14.6%, respectively.ConclusionsRacial/ethnic disparities in observed readmission rates may be largely explained by the more severe clinical profiles of minority populations. Controlling for known clinical risk factors effectively mediates the relationship between race/ethnicity and readmission.Copyright © 2019 by Daedalus Enterprises.
Notes
Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
- Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as
*italics*
,_underline_
or**bold**
. - Superscript can be denoted by
<sup>text</sup>
and subscript<sub>text</sub>
. - Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines
1. 2. 3.
, hyphens-
or asterisks*
. - Links can be included with:
[my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
- Images can be included with:
![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
- For footnotes use
[^1](This is a footnote.)
inline. - Or use an inline reference
[^1]
to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document[^1]: This is a long footnote.
.