Does XXXX at the time of discharge have any impact on the incidence of readmission?

@entity1 @entity221
Most physicians believe that @entity1 who have @entity221 within 24 hours of the planned date of discharge should be kept in the hospital until the @entity221 resolves. A search of the literature revealed very few articles addressing this topic. The object of this study was to review a number of @entity1 discharges from the surgical service and to document the presence or absence of @entity221 within 24 hours of the time of discharge. The primary end point of the study was to determine the rate of readmission for both @entity1 discharged with @entity221 and those discharged without @entity221 . Secondary end points were to determine whether the readmission was related to the original discharge diagnosis or the presence of @entity221 at the time of discharge. The records of all adult @entity1 with a hospital length of stay of > or = 5 days discharged from the surgical and gynecology services from April through July of 2007 were reviewed. Deaths were excluded. The following data elements were recorded: primary discharge diagnosis; age; highest recorded temperature within 24 hours of discharge; date time and cause of readmission within 30 days; and outcome. Fever was defined as a temperature of > or = 100 degrees F. Data were entered into an Excel (Microsoft, Redmond, WA) spreadsheet, and statistical analysis was performed using chi2 and Fisher's exact tests using Primer of Biostatistics (McGraw-Hill, New York, NY). The records of 300 consecutive @entity1 were reviewed. Follow-up was available for 86.7 per cent of the @entity1 , 84.4 per cent of the febrile @entity1 , and 87.1 per cent of the nonfebrile @entity1 . A @entity221 of > or = 100 degrees within 24 hours of discharge was noted in 45 (15.0%) @entity1 . The mean @entity221 was 100.5 degrees, with a range of 100 degrees to 102.1 degrees. There were 38 readmissions. Of the 45 @entity1 with @entity221 , seven (15.6%) were readmitted. Of those seven, four readmissions were related to the previous admitting diagnosis. Of the @entity1 who were discharged without @entity221 , 31 (12.2%) were readmitted with 24 of those readmissions for diagnoses related to the first admission. The rate of readmission for @entity221 and nonfever @entity1 was not statistically significantly different (P = 0.697). Similarly, the rate of related versus nonrelated diagnoses in both the @entity221 and nonfever groups was not statistically significantly different (P = 0.351). The presence or absence of @entity221 within 24 hours of @entity1 discharge seems to have no impact on the rate of readmission within 30 days.
