One in 12 patients readmitted to Canadian hospitals within 30 days

Study examines who is returning and why Download the report: All-Cause Readmission to Acute Care and Return to the Emergency Department June 14, 2012—Soon after their discharge from hospital, more than 180,000 Canadians were readmitted to acute care in 2010, reveals a study from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI). In those jurisdictions where detailed emergency department (ED) data was available—Alberta, Ontario and Yukon—nearly 1 in 10 acute care patients returned to the ED within seven days of hospital discharge. The study, All-Cause Readmission to Acute Care and Return to the Emergency Department, included more than 2.1 million hospitalizations across the country. It looked at surgical, medical, pediatric and obstetric patients to better understand who returned to acute care after discharge and for what clinical reason. The report and the following figures and table are available from CIHI’s website, at www.cihi.ca. Figure 1: Distribution of Triage Levels for Patients Returning to the ED Within Seven Days, Compared With All ED Patients (Figure 8 in the report) Figure 2: Rate of Inpatient Readmissions by Urban/Rural Residence, Overall and by Patient Group (Figure 3 in the report) Table 1: Rate of Inpatient Readmissions, by Income Quintile and by Patient Group (Percentage) (Table 6 in the report)