Management and Marketing Professor Fatma Pakdil and Steve Muchiri, assistant professor of economics and finance, recently teamed up with a Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) professor to publish a timely article related to the health care field.

Along with Azadeh-Fard, assistant professor of industrial and systems engineering at the RIT, Pakdil and Muchiri published a study on the impact of Hospital Readmissions Reduction Programs (HRRP) in the Journal of Patient Safety.

The study aims to analyze the impact of HRRPs on the nationwide optimization efforts of length of stay (LOS) and readmissions in the United States. Pakdil says the findings are critical for the health care industry, considering the size of the data used in the research. The team used the Nationwide Readmission Database between 2010 and 2016 provided in the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

“The study focused on acute myocardial infarction, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, congestive heart failure (CHF), pneumonia monitored by the HRRP and 2 conditions,

septicemia and mood disorders that were not monitored by the HRRP, but had among the highest readmissions,” said Pakdil. “Patient demographics and readmissions were analyzed based on insurance type, LOS, and Charlson Comorbidity Index.”

Muchiri said readmissions vary by conditions, LOS, and insurance types. “Congestive heart failure has the highest readmissions among the six analyzed conditions at approximately 25 percent. The readmission rate of CHF rises to 30 percent for Medicaid patients and varies between 30–35 percent by LOS. Patients with CHF with higher Charlson Comorbidity Index demonstrated the highest readmissions among the six conditions. The patients with longer LOSs had higher readmissions, and Medicare patients have a higher reduction in readmissions in acute myocardial infarction and mood disorders compared with the other forms of payments.”

Pakdil said their team’s findings show that targeted programs, such as HRRP, may have a positive impact on readmission rates. “We, however, observe some graphical evidence that nontargeted conditions could exhibit similar trends. Because of heterogeneity in hospital and patient characteristics, it is pivotal for researchers to consider them in formal analyses.”

For more information on the research, visit  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34292263/