(Press-News.org) (Boston)-- A study by physicians at Boston Medical Center (BMC), has found that patients with a high degree of activation (possessing the knowledge, skills, confidence and inclination to assume responsibility for managing one's health and health-care needs) were less likely to be readmitted to the hospital within 30 days of discharge than those with a low level of activation. This study, which appears online in Journal of General Internal Medicine, is the first to evaluate patient activation and its effects on utilization of hospital services after discharge.
Hospital readmissions within 30 days of discharge cost Medicare an estimated $17.4 billion s annually and present a great challenge to reducing health care costs. As reimbursement for hospital readmission declines in the current health-care climate, understanding patient factors leading to readmission is a potential avenue for reducing cost and improving care.
Data from 695 patients were analyzed and categorized into four levels of patient activation, level 1 (lowest activation) vs. level 4 (highest activation). The study concluded that patients with low activation had nearly twice the risk of 30-day post-discharge hospital service utilization compared with patients with higher activation.
According to the researchers identifying patients at risk for unplanned hospitalization following discharge presents an opportunity for intervention. "Our results suggest that access to greater services is not sufficient to avoid readmissions, but that available resources need to be tailored to the patient's individual needs," explained lead author Suzanne Mitchell, MD, MS, lead author of the study and family medicine physician at BMC. "These results reinforce a recent emphasis on targeted patient education during hospitalization," she added.
###
Funding for this study was provided by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (1K08HS019771-01) as well as the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI 1 R01 HL081307-01).
DISCLOSURE:
Dr. Mitchell is a non-product speaker on health behavior counseling for MERCK & Co.
Study finds readmission rates impacted by a patients' knowledge and skills
2013-10-09
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Researchers close in on cause of gynecological disease
2013-10-09
For the first time, researchers have created a model that could help unlock what causes adenomyosis, a common gynecological disease that is a major contributor to women having to undergo hysterectomies.
In a two-step process, a team led by Michigan State University's Jae-Wook Jeong first identified a protein known as beta-catenin that may play a key role in the development of the disease. When activated, beta-catenin causes changes in certain cells in a woman's uterus, leading to adenomyosis.
Then Jeong, an associate professor in the College of Human Medicine's Department ...
Running a marathon can be bad for the heart, especially in less prepared runners, say experts
2013-10-09
Philadelphia, PA, October 9, 2013 – Investigators who studied a group of recreational marathon runners have established that strenuous exercise such as running a marathon can damage the heart muscle. Although they found the effect is temporary and reversible, they warn that these effects are more widespread in less fit distance runners and that recreational distance runners should prepare properly before marathons. Their findings are published in the October issue of the Canadian Journal of Cardiology.
Previous reports have established that a significant percentage of ...
Does good cholesterol increase breast cancer risk?
2013-10-09
(PHILADELPHIA) High levels of high density lipoprotein (HDL), also known as the "good cholesterol," are thought to protect against heart disease. However, what's good for one disease may not be good for another. High levels of HDL have also been linked to increased breast cancer risks and to enhanced cancer aggressiveness in animal experiments. Now, a team of researchers led by Philippe Frank, Ph.D., a cancer biologist in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Thomas Jefferson University, has shown that an HDL receptor found on breast cancer cells may be ...
Mayo Clinic: Cataract surgeries on the rise as boomers age, raising access, cost issues
2013-10-09
ROCHESTER, Minn. -- As baby boomers enter their retirement years, health care costs for complex and debilitating conditions such as Alzheimer's disease are expected to soar. Not drawing as much attention is the likelihood of similarly rising expenses for common age-related medical procedures. A Mayo Clinic study looked at one of those -- cataract surgery-- and found that more people are getting the vision-improving procedure, seeking it at younger ages and having both eyes repaired within a few months, rather than only treating one eye. The demand shows no sign of leveling ...
BUSM identifies barriers to implementing complimentary medicine curricula into residency
2013-10-09
(Boston) - Investigators at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have identified that lack of time and a paucity of trained faculty are perceived as the most significant barriers to incorporating complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and integrative medicine (IM) training into family medicine residency curricula and training programs.
The study results, which are published online in Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing, were collected using data from an online survey completed by 212 national residency program directors. The study was led by Paula ...
Longer life for humans linked to further loss of endangered species
2013-10-09
As human life expectancy increases, so does the percentage of
invasive and endangered birds and mammals, according to a new study
by the University of California, Davis.
The study, published in the September issue of Ecology and Society,
examined a combination of 15 social and ecological variables -- from
tourism and per capita gross domestic product to water stress and
political stability. Then researchers analyzed their correlations
with invasive and endangered birds and mammals, which are two
indicators of what conservationist Aldo Leopold termed "land
sickness," ...
Self-healing materials could arise from finding that tension can fuse metal
2013-10-09
CAMBRIDGE, MA -- It was a result so unexpected that MIT researchers initially thought it must be a mistake: Under certain conditions, putting a cracked piece of metal under tension -- that is, exerting a force that would be expected to pull it apart -- has the reverse effect, causing the crack to close and its edges to fuse together.
The surprising finding could lead to self-healing materials that repair incipient damage before it has a chance to spread. The results were published in the journal Physical Review Letters in a paper by graduate student Guoqiang Xu and professor ...
New strategy lets cochlear implant users hear music
2013-10-09
For many, music is a universal language that unites people when words cannot. But for those who use cochlear implants -- technology that allows deaf and hard of hearing people to comprehend speech -- hearing music remains extremely challenging.
University of Washington scientists hope to change this. They have developed a new way of processing the signals in cochlear implants to help users hear music better. The technique lets users perceive differences between musical instruments, a significant improvement from what standard cochlear implants can offer, said lead researcher ...
Trauma-related psychophysiologic reactivity identified as best predictor of PTSD diagnosis
2013-10-09
(Boston) - Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and several other institutions including the National Center for PSTD, VA Boston Healthcare System, Suffolk University, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University, have determined that psychophysiologic reactivity to trauma-related, script-driven imagery procedures is a promising biological predictor of a post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) diagnosis. These findings appear online in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology.
Approximately seven to 12 percent of the general adult population ...
Clinical trial outcomes more complete in unpublished reports than published sources
2013-10-09
Clinical trial outcomes are more complete in unpublished reports than in publicly available information
Publicly available sources of information reporting findings from clinical trials provide much less information on patient-relevant outcomes than unpublished reports, according to a study by German researchers published in this week's PLOS Medicine. The results of the study by Beate Wieseler and colleagues from the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care in Cologne, Germany, found that the publicly available information contained less information about both ...