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Is Mental Illness a Risk Factor for Hospital Readmission?

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Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

People with mental illnesses (MI) receive suboptimal care for medical comorbidities and their high risk for readmission may be addressed by adequate medication management and follow-up care. We examined the association between MI, medication changes, and post-discharge outpatient visits with 30-day readmission in 40,048 Medicare beneficiaries hospitalized for acute myocardial infarction, heart failure or pneumonia. Beneficiaries with MI were more likely to be readmitted than those without MI (14 vs. 11%). Probability of readmission was 13 and 12% when medications were dropped or added, respectively, versus 11% when no change was made. Probability of readmission also increased with outpatient visits.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health, 130 De Soto Street, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, USA

    Kalyani Gopalan, Nicholas Castle, Joyce Chang & Julie Donohue

  2. RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, CA, USA

    Marcela Horvitz Lennon & Bradley D. Stein

  3. Rutgers UBHC, Trenton, NJ, USA

    Frank Ghinassi

Authors
  1. Kalyani Gopalan
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  2. Marcela Horvitz Lennon
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  3. Bradley D. Stein
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  4. Frank Ghinassi
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  5. Nicholas Castle
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  6. Joyce Chang
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  7. Julie Donohue
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Correspondence to Kalyani Gopalan.

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Conflict of interest

Kalyani Gopalan, Bradley D. Stein, Frank Ghinassi, Nicholas Castle, Joyce Chang, and Julie Donohue declare that they have no conflict of interest. Marcela Horvitz Lennon has received funding from NIMH and Janssen (Research Grant Overall PI).

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Gopalan, K., Lennon, M.H., Stein, B.D. et al. Is Mental Illness a Risk Factor for Hospital Readmission?. Adm Policy Ment Health 45, 933–943 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10488-018-0874-x

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