Readmission occurs when patients who have had a recent hospital stay need to go back into a hospital again within 30 days of their discharge.

The Medicare web site notes, “Patients may have been readmitted back to the same hospital or to a different hospital or acute care facility. They may have been readmitted for the same condition as their recent hospital stay, or for a different reason.”

While some patients have higher risks than others, and some patients are readmitted to hospitals within 30 days for reasons unrelated to their first problem, some of these readmissions may be preventable. A lower rate may indicate that a hospital provides a higher level of patient care.

About this measure

This measure evaluates the percentage of patients who were discharged from the hospital after being admitted for heart attack and were readmitted to any hospital for any reason in the next 30 days.

These percentages were calculated from Medicare data. They don't include people in Medicare Advantage Plans (like an HMO or PPO) or people who don’t have Medicare.

In this case, a lower number is better.