The study included 3,264 orthopedic surgery readmissions over the course of two years. The rate of unexpected readmission was 4.2 percent. Of the readmissions, 73.9 percent were surgical readmissions and 34.3 percent were due to surgical site infection.
The study identified the following as risk factors for readmission:
• Length of stay
• Time spent in the intensive care unit
• Medicaid patients
• Widowed martial status
• African-American, American Indian or Alaska Native patients
The study concluded that length of stay and admission to the intensive care unit considerably increased the risk of 30-day readmission. Medicaid insurance, marital status and race may point towards a correlation between social and economic status and readmission rates.
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