U-M School of Nursing study shows too many older adults readmitted to hospitals with same infections they took home
About 15% of hospitalized older adults will be readmitted within a month of discharge.
However, a new study led by U-M School of Nursing Professor Geoffrey J. Hoffman, Ph.D., MPH, found that a disproportionately high number return for preexisting, or linked infections — infections presumably treated during the first hospital stay. Further, patients discharged home or to home care were more likely to return with a linked infection than those discharged to skilled nursing homes.
“We found that as many as 5% of patients leaving the hospital with an infection have a readmission for that preexisting infection — that’s bad,” said Hoffman.
