Patient Reported Readiness for Discharge is Associated with Lower Readmission Rates and Higher Patient Satisfaction

With the introduction of the Affordable Care Act, patient reported outcomes have been increasingly emphasized. Further, new financial penalties have encouraged efforts to decrease the rate of readmission. Current efforts to limit readmission have primarily aimed to identify high risk groups based on clinical and social factors. Previous reports have shown that nursing assessment of a patient’s readiness for discharge correlates with readmission rates; therefore we sought to determine if patients’ self-reported readiness for discharge would be useful as a patient outcome predictor, in an effort to decrease readmission.