A new study suggests that the reduction in hospital readmissions of recent years may not be as meaningful a reflection of improved quality of care as some observers believe.

According to a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, at the same time that hospitals have reduced their readmissions of Medicare patients in response to penalties imposed through Medicare’s hospital readmissions reduction program, the rate of readmission of patients who are hospitalized for observation stays after visiting the emergency room has increased 35 percent.  This increase in readmissions for observation stay patients comes at a time, moreover, when hospitals are making far greater use of observation stays to serve emergency patients than they did in the past.

Learn more about these new findings and their potential implications in the study “Excluding Observation Stays From Readmission Rates – What Quality Measures are Missing,” which can be found here, or go here for a Fierce Healthcare summary.