A new study sheds more light on possible factors that may lead to hospital readmissions for some COVID-19 patients who were discharged less than a month earlier.
The researchers say the readmission rate may be similar to that seen for other conditions, but socioeconomic factors and gender appear to play a larger role in determining which patients are more likely to suffer deterioration. of their condition when they are sent home.
Research published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) Journal looked at 46,412 adults hospitalized with COVID-19 in Alberta and Ontario during the first part of the pandemic. About 18% of them, or 8,496 patients, died in hospital between January 2020 and October 2021, which was higher than the norm seen in other respiratory tract infections.
Of those sent home, about 9% returned to hospital within 30 days of leaving, while 2% lost their lives.
The combined readmission or death rate was similar in each province, at 9.9% or 783 patients in Alberta and 10.6% or 2,390 patients in Ontario.
Faced with speculation that patients were discharged from hospital too early, the report found that most spent less than a month in hospital and patients who stayed longer were in fact readmitted to hospital. a slightly higher rate.
“We first asked ourselves, ‘Have people been sent home too early?’, and there was no association between length of hospital stay and readmission rates, which which is reassuring,” observed co-author Dr. Finlay McAlister, professor of general internal medicine at the University of Alberta, Edmonton.
“So it seemed that clinicians were identifying the right patients to send home. »
The report found that readmitted patients were generally male, older and had multiple comorbidities and previous hospital visits and admissions. They were also more likely to be discharged with care at home or in a long-term care facility.
Dr. McAlister also found that socioeconomic status was a factor, noting that hospitals traditionally use a scoring system to predict outcomes by looking at length of stay, age, comorbidities and past emergency room visits.
“There is a message we see again and again with COVID-19: more difficult socio-economic status seems to be even more important than for other medical conditions.”
Finlay McAlister believes data from the study could help family doctors identify patients who need extra help when they leave the hospital.
Evidence suggests that many people who survive COVID-19 are unable to completely put the disease behind them.
The research period predates the push for the Omicron variant which emerged in late 2021, but Dr McAlister argues there is no reason to suspect much difference with patients today.