BMJ : British medical journal
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Objective To characterize rates and trends over time of emergency department treatment-and-discharge stays, repeat observation stays, inpatient stays, any hospital revisit, and death within 30 days of discharge from observation stays. Design Retrospective cohort study. Setting 4750 hospitals in the USA. ⋯ Rates of any hospital revisit (21.8%) and death (5.2%) were highest after discharge from index inpatient stays. Conclusions Hospital revisits are common after discharge from observation stays, frequently result in inpatient hospitalizations, and have increased over time among Medicare beneficiaries. As revisit rates are similar after emergency department and observation stays, strategies shown to enhance emergency department transitional care may be reasonable starting points to improve post-observation outcomes.