Are we targeting the right metric for heart failure? Comparison of hospital 30-day readmission rates and total episode of care inpatient days

Although hospital 30-day readmission rate was poorly correlated with LOS, quality measures, and 30-day mortality, better performance on the EOC metric was associated with better 30-day survival. Total inpatient days during a 30-day EOC may more accurately reflect overall resource use and better serve as a target for quality improvement efforts.