• Brett C Norman, Colin R Cooke, E Wes Ely, and John A Graves.
• 1Division of Allergy, Pulmonary, and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN.2Department of Health Policy, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN.3Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.4Center for Healthcare Outcomes and Policy, Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.5Michigan Center for Integrative Research in Critical Care, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.6Center for Health Services Research, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN.7Geriatric Research, Education, and Clinical Center (GRECC), Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Tennessee Valley Healthcare System, Nashville, TN.8Center for Quality of Aging, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN.
• Crit. Care Med. 2017 Jul 1; 45 (7): 1130-1137.

ObjectivesTo determine national readmission rates among sepsis survivors, variations in rates between hospitals, and determine whether measures of quality correlate with performance on sepsis readmissions.DesignCross-sectional study of sepsis readmissions between 2008 and 2011 in the Medicare fee-for-service database.SettingAcute care, Medicare participating hospitals from 2008 to 2011.PatientsSeptic patients as identified by International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision codes using the Angus method.InterventionsNone.Measurements And Main ResultsWe generated hospital-level, risk-standardized, 30-day readmission rates among survivors of sepsis and compared rates across region, ownership, teaching status, sepsis volume, hospital size, and proportion of underserved patients. We examined the relationship between risk-standardized readmission rates and hospital-level composite measures of quality and mortality. From 633,407 hospitalizations among 3,315 hospitals from 2008 to 2011, median risk-standardized readmission rates was 28.7% (interquartile range, 26.1-31.9). There were differences in risk-standardized readmission rates by region (Northeast, 30.4%; South, 29.6%; Midwest, 28.8%; and West, 27.7%; p < 0.001), teaching versus nonteaching status (31.1% vs 29.0%; p < 0.001), and hospitals serving the highest proportion of underserved patients (30.6% vs 28.7%; p < 0.001). The best performing hospitals on a composite quality measure had highest risk-standardized readmission rates compared with the lowest (32.0% vs 27.5%; p < 0.001). Risk-standardized readmission rates was lower in the highest mortality hospitals compared with those in the lowest (28.7% vs 30.7%; p < 0.001).ConclusionsOne third of sepsis survivors were readmitted and wide variation exists between hospitals. Several demographic and structural factors are associated with this variation. Measures of higher quality in-hospital care were correlated with higher readmission rates. Several potential explanations are possible including poor risk standardization, more research is needed.

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