Discharge Instructions

Purpose

The purpose of this analysis is to compare the rates of patients who reported that they were given information about what to do during their recovery at home, given the rates of readmissions and mortality for acute myocardial infarction, coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, stroke, heart failure, pneumonia, and hip/knee replacement at multiple levels, including state, county, and hospital type.

Avoiding hospital readmissions is incentivized as an opportunity for hospitals to decrease costs and improve health outcomes and patient satisfaction (CMS, 2021). Approximately 17% of elderly patients discharged from the hospital are readmitted within 30 days, and many of these readmissions are avoidable (Bailey et al., 2019). The U.S. government started penalizing hospitals in 2012 for preventable readmissions (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, n.d.). There is a growing emphasis on providing patients with discharge instructions and follow-up care to improve health outcomes (Bennett & Probst, 2016). Disparities between and among hospitals continue around this quality measure.

This data is also available as an Excel spreadsheet.

Discharge Instructions.xlsx (4.48 MB)

This alternate format also provides hospital-specific data.

Tutorial Video
Data Sources
Defining The Columns

In this tutorial video, we look at Discharge Instructions. The video guides you through how to use Tableau data analysis to compare the rates of patients who reported that they were given information about what to do during their recovery at home, given the rates of readmissions and mortality for acute myocardial infarction, coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, stroke, heart failure, pneumonia, and hip/knee replacement at multiple levels, including state, county, and hospital type.

Discharge Instructions Tutorial Video

Hospital Compare - Patient Surveys - HCAHPS

(Data released January 2022)

Hospital Compare - Unplanned Hospital Visits

(Data released January 2022)

Hospital Compare - Complications and Deaths

(Data released January 2022)

Hospital Compare - Hospital General Information

(Data released January 2022)

A blank entry indicates unreported data. A value of zero is defined and does not represent unreported data.

State: The abbreviated name of the state where the hospital is located.

County: The name of the county where the hospital is located. County names are listed as provided on the US Census Bureau's list of 2020 FIPS Codes for Counties and County Equivalent Entities.

Hospital: The name of the hospital.

Patient Given Information about Recovery: The calculated rate of patients that reported on the HCAHPS patient surveys that they did receive information about what to do during their recovery at home. A higher score is desired as this indicates a high proportion of patients provided with information. The reporting period for this measure is July 1, 2020, through March 31, 2021.

Health Outcome Measure: The name of the significant complications and death measures. The measures include mortality and readmission rates for acute myocardial infarction, coronary artery bypass grafting, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart attack, heart failure, stroke, pneumonia, and hip/knee replacement.

Health Outcome Rate: The calculated rates for the major complications and death measures. A lower measure is desired as this indicates a lower proportion of mortality or readmissions. The reporting period for these measures is July 1, 2017, through December 1, 2019.

Hospital Type: The type of hospital includes acute care hospitals, acute care - Department of Defense hospitals, children's hospitals, and critical access hospitals.

Population Type: An indication of whether a county where the hospital is located is predominantly metropolitan, micropolitan, or rural.

Population Type: An indication of whether a county is predominantly metropolitan, micropolitan, or rural.