Authors
Klaus Lemke
Publication date
2012
Description
Context: Hospitals assess the readmission risk of their inpatients, and use this assessment to prioritize patients at risk of readmission who will benefit from transition management to outpatient care with the goal of becoming less likely to be readmitted within a 30 day time period.
Purpose: We are building a predictive 30-day readmission model by using a large claims database 1 and applying a tool 2 that provides several claims-based markers for a time-to-readmission analysis. Cox proportional hazard regression, and in particular the SAS/STAT® PHREG procedure enables us to model time to readmission while adjusting for covariates and accounting for time censoring and person attrition. The approach also enables us to assess the impact of recurrent readmissions and timevarying covariates.
Impact: This paper will give the reader insight into applying PROC PHREG to model the likelihood of 30-day readmission.