1. Potentially Preventable Readmissions
Clinical Logic and Review
July 2010

2. What is a Potentially Preventable Readmission (PPR)?
A return hospitalization within a specified time interval that reasonable clinicians would agree was likely related to the initial hospital stay, and was potentially preventable by means of:
Excellent care during the first hospitalization; and 
Best possible coordination with the outpatient setting – including:
outpatient health professional team and
the patient/family/caregiver.

3. What is Not a Potentially Preventable Readmission?
A return hospitalization that is:
Due to an unrelated event that occurred after discharge (broken leg due to trauma), or
Due to a related but unpreventable event that occurred after discharge (alteration in consciousness after admission for a brain tumor)
Planned at the time of the discharge from the initial admission (angioplasty after an admission for angina).

4. General Guidelines for PPRs
Readmission
Initial Admission
Medical
Surgical
PPR except if clearly unrelated acute events
Not PPR unless initial medical diagnosis clearly should have resulted in surgery
PPR except conditions
clearly unrelated
PPR if related to prior surgery

5. PPR Global Exclusions
If any of the following conditions apply to the initial admission, a subsequent readmission is globally excluded from consideration as a PPR
Admissions for which follow-up care is intrinsically extensive and complex
Major or metastatic malignancies treated medically
Multiple trauma, burns
Discharge status indicates limited hospital & provider control
Left against medical advice
Transferred to another acute care hospital
Neonates
Other exclusions
Specific eye procedures and infections
Cystic fibrosis with pulmonary diagnoses
Died – not included as candidate initial admissions (denominator)
PPR Definition Manual Appendix E for List of Globally Excluded APR DRGs
PPR Definition Manual Appendix G for List of Major and Metastatic Malignant Diagnoses
Several kinds of admissions are not considered potentially preventable and therefore can be classified neither as either a PPR nor an Initial Admission. Major or metatastic malignancies, multiple traumas, and burns are not considered preventable and are globally excluded because the follow-up care is intrinsically clinically-complex and extensive. Further, ICD-9-CM may lack the clinical detail necessary to determine if an admission is potentially preventable (e.g. stage of a malignancy). Neonatal discharges have unique attributes. Admissions related to eye care and cystic fibrosis are globally excluded for similar reasons. Readmissions with a discharge status of “left against medical advice” are globally excluded because,
under these circumstances, the hospital has limited influence on the care rendered to the patient.

6. Clinical Factors make a readmission not potentially preventable
No clinical relationship to prior discharge
Cholecystectomy two weeks after hip replacement
Discharge status of prior discharge
AMA and transferred to another acute care hospital
Type of prior discharge
Follow-up care is intrinsically complex and extensive
Metatastic malignancies, Multiple trauma, Burns
Longer interval between discharge and readmission
Long time intervals (>30 days) reduce confidence that readmission is causally linked to the prior discharge

7. Clinical Relation Reasons 1 and 2
1 Medical readmission for a continuation or recurrence of the reason for the initial admission, or for a closely related condition.
The most common example of this type of readmission is a patient discharged from and admission for Congestive Heart Failure who is then readmitted for the same reason
2 Medical readmission for an acute decompensation of a chronic problem that was not the principal reason for the initial admission, but may be related to care either during or after the initial admission.
Such readmissions could be triggered by failure to renew lapsed prescriptions or incomplete instruction about returning to a previous medical regimen at the time of discharge, miscommunication about changes in a regimen that could affect an underlying chronic condition, lack of prompt follow-up by a primary care team, or failure to communicate in-hospital events, changes in the medical regimen, and issues that require ongoing monitoring to the primary care provider.
2a Ambulatory care sensitive conditions as designated by ARHQ
Examples would be patients who, regardless of the reason for their initial admission, are readmitted for uncontrolled diabetes, asthma or COPD exacerbation, uncontrolled hypertension, or urinary tract infection
2b All other readmissions for a chronic problem that may be related to care either during or after the initial admission
Examples would be readmissions for diabetic neuropathy, interstitial lung disease, cardiomyopathy, or Alzheimer dementia

8. Clinical Relation Reasons 3, 4, and 5
3 Medical readmission for an acute medical condition or complication that may be related to or may have resulted from care during the initial admission or in the post-discharge period after the initial admission.
Examples: Patients discharged after elective surgery readmitted with a urinary tract infection likely related to an indwelling foley catheter during the initial admission; or readmitted with a post-operative wound infection
4 Readmission for a surgical procedure to address a continuation or a recurrence of the problem causing the initial admission.
Examples: Patients discharged after coronary angioplasty then readmitted for coronary bypass grafts (CABG); patients discharged after an admission for unexplained abdominal pain readmitted to undergo an appendectomy
5 Readmission for surgical procedure to address a complication that may be related to or may have resulted from care during the initial admission.
Example: Patients readmitted for extensive surgical debridement for a post-operative wound infection

9. Clinical Relation Reasons 6a, b and c
6 Readmissions for substance abuse and mental health reasons. These readmissions are tallied separately because of the uncertainty regarding the hospital and outpatient teams’ ability to prevent readmission.
6a. Readmission for mental health reasons following an initial admission for a non-mental health, non-substance abuse reason
Example: Initial admission for acute MI, readmission for schizophrenia
6b. Readmission for a substance abuse diagnosis reason following an initial admission for a non-mental health, non-substance abuse reason
Example: Initial admission for pneumonia, readmission for acute alcohol intoxication
6c. Mental health or substance abuse readmission following an initial admission for a substance abuse or mental health diagnosis
Example: A patient hospitalized for Bipolar disorder, discharged than readmitted for cocaine intoxication; a patient discharged after a hospitalization for acute alcohol toxicity, readmitted for an exacerbation of schizophrenia. The most common example in this category is a patient admitted for schizophrenia and readmitted for the same reason.

10. Potentially Preventable Readmissions within 30 Days
All admissions
1,537,267
Readmissions within 30 days
186,605
Global Exclusions
24,164
Not Potentially Preventable
44,202
Total Exclusions
68,366
Potentially Preventable Readmissions
118,239
Percent of readmissions potentially preventable: 118,239/186,605 = 63.4%
Source: MD HSCRC

11. APPENDIX M CONTAINS A LIST of clinically-related readmissions, organized by initial APR DRG. Under the initial APR DRG is the list of APR DRGs that are clinically-related. When the initial admittance is assigned the initial APR DRG, and the readmittance is assigned one of the APR DRGs in the list that follows the initial APR DRG, the readmission is a possible PPR.
Also listed is the category number that defines when a readmission is clinically related to an initial admission.