Centre for Policy on Ageing



Unplanned readmission to hospital — a comparison of the views of general practitioners and hospital staff
Author(s)	Ben Pearson, Robert Skelly, Derek Wileman
Journal title	Age and Ageing, vol 31, no 2, March 2002
Pages	pp 141-143
Keywords	Admission [hospitals] ; Attitude ; General practitioners ; Medical workers ; Hospital services ; Comparison.
Annotation	About 13% of older patients have an unplanned readmission to hospital. Such events are of concern to patients, carers and hospitals. The authors studied 124 patients aged 65+ who were readmitted within 28 days of discharge. They determined the views of hospital staff and a patient's general practitioner (GP) on reasons for readmission and compared them using McNemar test. The commonest agreed reason for readmission was a relapse or a complication with the original illness. Opinions differed more significantly where the reason was poor health or inadequate preparation on discharge. GPs' views need to be taken into account more, since they cite "avoidable" failures in communication and discharge planning as reasons for readmission. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-020418207 A
Classmark	LD:QKH: DP: QT6: QT: LD: 48
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing

...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.