Trust loses out on cash as patients 'readmitted' for just 10 minutes

A report to March board meeting said of the 263 emergency readmissions following an emergency spell in February, 35 had a lentgh of stay of less than three hours implying that they were “inappropriately classified as an emergency readmission”.

The report said three quarters of emergency readmissions post emergency were on five wards. Ward 5 had 18 Readmissions in January of which 11 (61.1 per cent)
had a LOS of 90 minutes or less, the shortest LOS being 10 minutes.

Under payment by results, trusts only get paid 30 per cent of the tariff price for readmissions.

Across the trust overall general surgery, gynaecology and paediatrics had the highest levels of readmissions.