PROFILE OF POSTDISCHARGE REHOSPITALIZATIONS AND ACUTE-CARE VISITS FOR7 PATIENT GROUPS

The study's purpose was to examine postdischarge rehospitalizations an d acute care visits in seven high risk, high volume, high-cost patient groups. Subjects were drawn from an urban tertiary teaching hospital. The total sample (N = 764) consisted of seven patient groups (drawn f rom five randomized clinical trials): very low birthweight (VLBW) infa nts (n = 79); women post-unplanned cesarean birth (n = 122) and their infants (n = 123); pregnant women with diabetes (n = 55); women post-h ysterectomy surgery (n = 109); and elderly with medical cardiac Diagno stic Related Groups (DRGs) (n = 142) and elderly with surgical cardiac DRGs (n = 134). The VLBW infant and pregnant diabetic groups were pre dominantly African American, the elderly and hysterectomy groups predo minantly Caucasian, and the cesarean group almost equally distributed. The lowest rate of rehospitalization (2%) occurred in the cesarean gr oup, the highest (35%) in the pregnant diabetics. In four groups (cesa rean and infants, hysterectomy and surgical elderly), 60%-100% of the rehospitalizations occurred within 4 weeks of discharge. Subjects requ iring acute care visits ranged from 13% (hysterectomy) to 82% (VLBW in fants). Acute care visits demonstrated greater distribution throughout the follow-up periods but also tended to concentrate in the first 4 w eeks postdischarge.