In the Emergency Room…Again

Men are more likely to be readmitted to the hospital within 30 days of discharge than women, according to BUSM researchers Brian Jack, MD, professor of family medicine, and Suzanne Mitchell, MD, MS, assistant professor, family medicine. Other factors also predicted re-admittance in men included being retired, unmarried, having symptoms of depression and failing to follow up with a primary care doctor after hospitalization. The findings, which appear currently online in BMJ Open, may lead to interventions that address these issues, such as setting men up with primary care resources prior to leaving the hospital.

Reducing hospital readmission within the first 30 days after discharge has been the recent target of both quality improvement measures and cost reduction strategies. Using clinical data from Boston Medical Center’s (BMC) Project RED (ReEngineered Discharge) program, the researchers assessed the association between gender and the rate of post-discharge hospital utilization among adult patients. They found that men not only had a higher rate of 30-day readmission to hospital (47 events per 100 people per month) than women (29 events per 100 people per month), but that men also were less likely to complete a follow-up appointment with their primary care physician after discharge.

“As we demonstrated in this study, male gender is associated with other parameters that could potentially be effectively targeted,” said Brian Jack, MD, professor of family medicine at BUSM and principal investigator of BMC’s Project RED. “This research could lead to interventions to screen for depression, address social isolation, and connect men into primary care upon hospital discharge,” he added.

Submitted by Lydia Efird, MD