A Nurse Practitioner‒Led Intervention to Reduce Hospital Readmissions

A readmission risk prediction tool was used to identify high-readmission-risk medical patients. A total of 676 patients were identified as high risk. Five hundred thirty-two patients received a single nurse practitioner‒led postdischarge home visit. One hundred forty-four patients were included in the study as controls. The home visit average age was 75.4 years, and control group average age was 70.7 years. The control group readmission rate was 23.61%, while patients receiving home visits had a readmission rate of 12.22% (48.2% relative reduction). Acute care return rates (including emergency room, observation, and inpatient admissions within 30 days) were monitored. The control group rate of acute care return was 61.1%. Patients receiving home visits had an acute care return rate of 28.2% (53.9% relative reduction).