Hospital Readmission Rates Higher in Blacks Than in White

New research has indicated that Blacks are more likely to be readmitted to the hospital within a month than Whites. The researchers looked at 3 million hospital discharges for heart attack, congestive heart failure and pneumonia from Medicare data. Among them 8.7 percent were for black patients, and 91.3 percent were for white patients.

The researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston reported that readmission rates were 24.8 percent for blacks and 22.6 percent for whites.

"There are significant racial disparities in readmission rates in this country," said the study's lead author, Dr. Karen Joynt. "We found that both race and site of care mattered. The next step is to find out why this disparity exists."

The study details appear in the latest issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.


Source-Medindia