CHIA Publishes New Report on Hospital Readmissions in Massachusetts

DATE: March 24, 2022

CHIA today published its most recent report on Hospital-Wide Adult All-Payer Readmissions in Massachusetts: SFY 2011-2020. Unplanned hospital readmissions are a costly and potentially preventable problem that impacts patient health and experience of care both nationally and in Massachusetts. Readmissions are a central issue in efforts to improve health care quality and reduce costs.

This report is the seventh in CHIA’s annual series of all-payer readmission reports and updates previous reports with SFY 2019 and 2020 data (July 1, 2018 – June 30, 2020). This report provides a significant update to the methodology CHIA uses to compare hospital readmission rates. Guided by recommendations from an expert committee on social risk factors, enhancements were made to the calculation of risk-standardized readmission rates to provide a more fair comparison of hospital performance.

The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly disrupted the health care system and affected acute care hospital utilization in historically unprecedented ways. To better understand acute care utilization during this time period, CHIA reports both annual and quarterly trends for SFY 2019 to 2020 and includes a new section on COVID-19 readmissions.

KEY FINDINGS:

• The unplanned, all-payer readmission rate for Massachusetts increased from 2019 to 2020 (15.6% and 15.9%, respectively).
  
  

• Risk-standardized readmission rates for acute care hospitals in Massachusetts ranged from 13.7% to 17.9% when adjusted for hospital service mix, patient case mix, and patient- and community-level social risk factors.
  
  

• The readmission rate for COVID-19 discharges was 14.7%, compared to 17.2% for non-COVID-19 discharges.
  
  

• In 2020, readmission rates for patients discharged to home or home health agencies increased, while rates for patients discharged to skilled nursing facilities or rehabilitation decreased.

This report is also accompanied by a detailed databook and technical appendix.

For additional analysis and coverage of hospital readmissions and revisits in Massachusetts, please visit https://www.chiamass.gov/hospital-wide-adult-all-payer-readmissions-and-revisits-in-massachusetts/.