Table 1.
Patient characteristics
| Not avoidable (n = 357) | Avoidable (n = 246) | All patients (N = 603) | P-value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Socio-Demographics | ||||
| Gender (Male) % | 52.4 | 54.5 | 53.2 | 0.613 |
| Age, in years | 75.0 | 74.7 | 74.8 | 0.800 |
| Admitted from elderly home % | 34.7 | 30.1 | 32.8 | 0.232 |
| Fee paid by public assistance % | 54.3 | 60.6 | 56.9 | 0.129 |
| Clinical data | ||||
| Main principal diagnosis at readmission % | ||||
| Symptoms, signs & ill-defined condition | 16.5 | 13.8 | 15.4 | 0.099 |
| Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease | 12.6 | 11.8 | 12.3 | |
| Pneumonia | 13.7 | 7.7 | 11.3 | |
| Heart failure | 5.3 | 8.9 | 6.8 | |
| Ischaemic heart disease | 5.0 | 4.1 | 4.6 | |
| Cancer | 3.6 | 2.4 | 3.2 | |
| Chronic renal failure | 3.4 | 2.4 | 3.0 | |
| Cerebrovascular diseases | 2.2 | 1.6 | 2.0 | |
| Diabetes | 0.8 | 2.4 | 1.5 | |
| Others | 36.7 | 44.7 | 40.0 | |
| Main principal diagnosis at previous discharge % | ||||
| Symptoms, signs & ill-defined condition | 16.5 | 17.9 | 17.1 | 0.074 |
| Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease | 9.2 | 13.0 | 10.8 | |
| Heart failure | 8.7 | 8.5 | 8.6 | |
| Pneumonia | 10.1 | 5.7 | 8.3 | |
| Chronic renal failure | 3.1 | 5.3 | 4.0 | |
| Ischaemic heart disease | 2.8 | 3.3 | 3.0 | |
| Cerebrovascular diseases | 3.9 | 1.2 | 2.8 | |
| Cancer | 3.1 | 1.2 | 2.3 | |
| Diabetes | 1.1 | 2.8 | 1.8 | |
| Others | 41.5 | 41.1 | 41.3 | |
| Same principal diagnosis in both discharge and readmission episode % | 24.4 | 45.1 | 32.8 | < 0.001 |
| Length of stay in previous discharge, in days | 9.9 | 8.5 | 9.3 | 0.217 |
| No. of hospitalization in the past 12 months | 4.1 | 4.5 | 4.3 | 0.290 |
| No. of attendance to the public general & specialist outpatient clinics and Accident and Emergency Departments in the past 12 months | 13.1 | 13.1 | 13.1 | 0.960 |
| No. of medication on discharge | 7.0 | 7.4 | 7.2 | 0.218 |
| Physical and cognitive function | ||||
| Mobility status % | ||||
| Not available | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.493 |
| Walk independent | 36.7 | 41.5 | 38.6 | |
| Walk with support | 32.2 | 34.1 | 33.0 | |
| Chairbound/Bedbound | 30.5 | 24.4 | 28.1 | |
| Others | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.2 | |
| Cognitive function % | ||||
| Not available | 1.7 | 2.0 | 1.8 | 0.127 |
| Normal | 66.9 | 76.0 | 70.6 | |
| Dementia | 19.9 | 12.6 | 16.9 | |
| Impaired mental state | 9.5 | 8.1 | 9.0 | |
| Others | 2.0 | 1.2 | 1.7 | |
| Feeding problem % | ||||
| No problem | 82.9 | 86.2 | 84.2 | 0.293 |
| Enteral feeding | 10.6 | 6.9 | 9.1 | |
| Others | 6.4 | 6.9 | 6.6 | |
| Instrumentation % | ||||
| No | 73.1 | 78.5 | 75.3 | 0.039 |
| Foley Cath | 5.3 | 4.9 | 5.1 | |
| R/T | 9.0 | 4.9 | 7.3 | |
| PEG | 0.0 | 0.4 | 0.2 | |
| Tracheostomy | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.3 | |
| CAPD | 4.5 | 7.7 | 5.8 | |
| Others | 7.8 | 3.3 | 6.0 | |
| Other discharge and readmission information | ||||
| Patient was transferred to Convalescence/Rehabilitation in previous discharge % | 20.2 | 15.4 | 18.2 | 0.140 |
| Discharge destination in previous discharge % | ||||
| Home | 63.6 | 69.1 | 65.8 | 0.109 |
| Residential home for elderly | 36.1 | 29.7 | 33.5 | |
| Others | 0.3 | 1.2 | 0.7 | |
| Follow-up arrangement in previous discharge % | ||||
| Specialist outpatient clinics | 68.6 | 69.5 | 69.0 | 0.817 |
| General outpatient clinics/Family Medicine clinics | 7.3 | 9.3 | 8.1 | 0.361 |
| Sub acute and community services | 18.5 | 15.9 | 17.4 | 0.402 |
| No follow-up | 0.6 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 0.707 |
| Time interval between discharge from index episode and readmission, in days | 12.9 | 11.0 | 12.1 | 0.006 |
Note: P-value is used to show the significance of each independent variable with the outcome variable on whether the readmission was avoidable or not avoidable.