Relationship Between Hospital Readmission and Mortality Rates for Patients Hospitalized With Acute Myocardial Infarction, Heart Failure, or Pneumonia

Abstract

Measuring and improving hospital quality of care, particularly outcomes of care, is an important focus for clinicians and policy makers. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) began publicly reporting hospital 30-day, all-cause, risk-standardized mortality rates (RSMRs) for patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and heart failure (HF) in June 2007 and for pneumonia in 2008. In June 2009, the CMS expanded public reporting to include hospital 30-day, all-cause, risk-standardized readmission rates (RSRRs) for patients hospitalized with these 3 conditions.^1-8 The National Quality Forum approved these measures and an independent committee of statisticians nominated by the Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies endorsed the validity of the methods.⁹ The mortality and readmission measures have been proposed for use in federal programs to modify hospital payments based on performance.^10,11