Readmissions in the Era of Patient Engagement

With the growing focus and attention on patient centered care, patients increasingly express a desire to be involved in their care and want to take an active role in their medical decision-making. However, the patient centered approach has not been widely adapted into strategies for reducing hospital readmissions despite extensive efforts from medical administrators, physicians and nurses to reduce readmissions.The goal of this study was to interview all patients readmitted within 30 days to general medicine and cardiology services, in order to illuminate patient-identified events, experiences or perceptions that are associated with more frequent and/or more preventable hospital readmissions.