New measure may help hospitalized patients soon. (An Advertising Supplement).Hospitalized pneumonia patients who have abnormal vital signs, mental confusion problems with eating or drinking in the 24 hours prior to discharge are more likely not to be able to resume normal activities, and face a greater chance of hospital readmission readmission Managed care The admission of a Pt to a health care facility for a condition–eg, stroke, MI, GI bleeding, hip fracture, cancer surgery, shortly after discharge. See nth admission. Cf Admission, Discharge. or death, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. a study funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, n.pr formerly known as the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, this agency researches the quality of medical care and health services. . The study was published in the June 10 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine The Archives of Internal Medicine is a bi-monthly international peer-reviewed professional medical journal published by the American Medical Association. Archives of Internal Medicine . The research team, led by Ethan A. Halm, M.D., M.P.H., of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Mount Sinai School of Medicine is a medical school found in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. , focused on the potential danger of releasing pneumonia patients from the hospital "quicker and sicker." They developed a simple measure of how sick patients with pneumonia are that can be used to judge whether it is safe for them to be discharged from the hospital. The measure uses information from the five basic vital signs that are checked several times a day in hospitalized patients (temperature; heart rate; blood pressure; respiratory rate respiratory rate, n the normal rate of breathing at rest, about 12 to 20 inspirations per minute. systemic inflammatory response syndrome A term that ' ; and oxygen levels in the blood), as well as an assessment of the patient's mental status and ability to eat and drink. Dr. Halm and his colleagues found that patients who were medically unstable--defined as having problems with at least one of the seven factors in the measure--had a 30 percent increased chance of readmission or death and a 50 percent higher chance of not returning to their usual activities within 30 days. The researchers found that the risk of readmission or death was 5 times greater for the small proportion of patients who were discharged with two or more unstable factors. Using their instrument, Halm and his colleagues found that 1 in 5 of the patients they studied had been discharged "medically unstable." The researchers believe that hospital and insurance plan guidelines guidelines, n.pl a set of standards, criteria, or specifications to be used or followed in the performance of certain tasks. that shorten the length of hospital stays should build in a safety check to measure clinical stability prior to discharge to make sure that patients are not sent home too soon. Halm also proposes that measuring stability before discharge can be used as an indicator of quality of care. This also can be used to compare provider and health plan performance or to stimulate quality improvement activities. Information provided by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. |
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