Just published: Predictors of 30-day readmission following hospitalisation with community-acquired pneumonia

We are pleased to announce the recent publication of the latest research paper: Predictors of 30-day readmission following hospitalisation with community-acquired pneumonia.

The paper has been produced in collaboration by Dr Biswajit Chakrabarti, clinical lead for pneumonia, Martin Allen, University Hospitals of North Midlands, and Steven Lane and Dan Wotton from the University of Liverpool, with support from the Advancing Quality team, Tom Jenks, Joanne Higgins and Elizabeth Kanwar.

Following an analysis of nine Trusts that participate in the AQ Pneumonia Programme, several advancements were made towards predicting the rate of patients readmission following CAP.

The paper identified that 1 in 4 patients hospitalised with a diagnosis of community acquired pneumonia are readmitted within 30 days of discharge with the majority of readmissions occurring within 2 weeks of discharge.

The report highlighted that a diagnosis of community acquired pneumonia should not be regarded as a respiratory diagnosis in isolation but is often an expression of underlying comorbidity requiring a more holistic focus to patient care.

It also showed the importance of optimising the approach used to identify and address comorbidity in patients diagnosed with community acquired pneumonia. The report suggested that where appropriate, strategies should be considered including advanced care planning and intermediate care with supported discharge in those community acquired pneumonia patients requiring hospitalisation.

The aim of the AQ Programme is to reduce unwarranted clinical variation in the care delivered to patients helping care organisations to reduce avoidable hospitalisation, ill health and premature death. The AQ Pneumonia Programme requires participating hospitals to submit data for proven CAP admissions on a rolling monthly basis. The paper was produced using data and analysis of CAP cases admitted to nine UK hospitals participating in the Advancing Quality Pneumonia programme.

You can read the full paper here.

You can find out more about our Advancing Quality programme, and how the team can support you here.