Medicare posts data on hospital readmissions

By Liz Kowalczyk, Globe Staff

President Obama and members of Congress have cited high numbers of hospital readmissions as a main driver of soaring health care costs, as well as being bad for patients. Now, consumers can find out which hospitals have the highest -- and lowest -- readmission rates for three common conditions, heart attack, heart failure, and pneumonia.

The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which posted the information today on its website, says most Boston hospitals performed close to the national average between July 2005 and June 2008.

Massachusetts General Hospital was the only Boston hospital that scored better than average for any condition; 22 percent of Mass. General's heart failure patients are readmitted to the hospital within 30 days, compared with 24.5 percent of patients nationally.

Other hospitals fell below average on some of the measures. Tufts Medical Center scored worse than average for the readmission of heart failure patients, and Caritas St. Elizabeth's Medical Center scored below average for heart attack readmissions, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center was the only Boston hospital to score worse than average on all three measures. The hospital's highest readmission rate was for heart failure -- 27.5 percent of patients, compared with 24.5 percent nationally.

Dr. Kenneth Sands, senior vice president of health care quality at Beth Israel Deaconess, said that, because the comparison data are new, the hospital isn't sure why it scored worse than average. He said staff will spend the next few weeks studying the issue. He said Beth Israel Deaconess has a higher rate of cardiac disease in its patient population, which might partially explain the findings.

Readmission rates are important because they indicate how well a hospital did treating an illness during the patient's first stay, and whether staff properly prepared the patient for discharge and follow-up care. The rates are adjusted for the acuity of patients.