By: Jeffrey Maser  Apr. 09, 2018
Dexur analysts recently studied Medicare inpatient COPD discharges and found that Sharon Hospital in Sharon reported a 5.15 day average length of stay (LOS) for a 30-day episode of care with unplanned readmissions, the lowest rate in Connecticut. This was nearly a day lower than the national rate of 6.06 days and about a day and a half lower than the 6.49 day average for all Connecticut Medicare enrollees. UConn John Dempsey Hospital in Farmington ranked 2nd in the state at 5.24 days, while Middlesex Hospital in Middletown ranked 3rd at 5.41 days. These three hospitals were the only facilities in the state with a 30-day episode of care average LOS including unplanned readmissions below 5.5 days.
30-day episode of care average LOS with unplanned readmissions is comprised of hospital LOS during the index discharge and any other days in the hospital within the first 30 days post-discharge due to unplanned readmissions. An unplanned readmission is defined as a hospital readmission via the emergency department. It must be noted, however, that patients are not always readmitted to the index hospital for subsequent stays. Connecticut hospitals were included in the rankings if they reported at least 50 DRG-190 (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease With Major Complication or Comorbidity) discharges between January 2013 - December 2016; 27 hospitals met this criteria. Discharges where the patient expired, was transferred, or was discharged against medical advice were excluded from the totals.
Some of the major contributing factors to Sharon Hospital's top ranking 30-day episode of care average LOS with unplanned readmissions were the hospital's 3rd ranked average LOS for the index hospital stay at 4.27 days and their 3rd ranked average LOS for unplanned readmitted hospital stays at 4.78 days. The hospital also ranked 5th in the state with an unplanned readmission rate of 18.56%. Sharon Hospital was the only hospital to rank in the top five for all three of these metrics as well as 30-day episode of care average LOS with unplanned readmissions. MidState Medical Center in Meriden was the only other hospital to rank among the top 10 for these four metrics. Additionally, Sharon Hospital had the lowest skilled nursing facility (SNF) discharge rate at 14.43%, nearly half the Connecticut average of 26.06%. Sharon Hospital also had the highest home discharge rate for the index hospital stay at 56.7%, over 20% higher than the state average of 33.82% and over 10% higher than Greenwich Hospital in Greenwich, which ranked 2nd for the metric at 46.4%.