Title

Predictors of Rehospitalization in High-Utilizing Patients in the VA Psychiatric Medical System

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2011

Source Publication

Psychiatric Quarterly

Abstract

233 high-service-utilizing (HSU) psychiatric patients were recruited during an inpatient psychiatric treatment. They completed a questionnaire related to their treatment beliefs and were tracked via computerized medical records over 2 years. During the follow-up period, 79.8% were readmitted for additional inpatient psychiatric treatment. Survival analysis techniques were used to examine patients’ rates of readmittance during the follow-up period. Number of previous year inpatient psychiatric days served as a significant predictor of readmittance status and time to readmission. The survival plot was split by previous-year inpatient days to examine the effect of this variable on readmission. Implications of findings are discussed.

Comments

Psychiatric Quarterly (2011). DOI: 10.1007/s11126-011-9182-2