Hospital Readmission Rates Among Mechanically Ventilated Patients With Stroke

Background and Purpose—Tracheostomy is frequently performed in patients with severe ischemic stroke, intracerebral hemorrhage, or subarachnoid hemorrhage. Little is known about readmission rates among stroke patients who undergo mechanical ventilation. Methods—We used previously validated International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Edition-Clinical Modification codes and data on all discharges from nonfederal acute care hospitals in 3 states. We compared readmission rates among mechanically ventilated patients with stroke who were discharged with or without a tracheostomy. Results—Among 39 881 patients who underwent mechanical ventilation during the index stroke hospitalization and survived to discharge, 10 690 (26.8%; 95% confidence interval, 26.4%–27.2%) underwent tracheostomy. During a mean follow-up period of 3.4 (±2.0) years, the overall incidence rate of readmissions was 4.25 (95% confidence interval, 4.22–4.28) per 100 patients per 30 days. The rate of any readmissions within 30 days was 26.9% ...