30-day-or-sooner readmissions of gastrointestinal medical oncology patients following cancer center inpatient service discharge: characteristics and preventability.

Purpose: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently initiated readmission reduction programs for certain noncancer index admissions. Intrinsic to this policy is the assumption that such readmissions are reasonably preventable and are due to inadequate management. For cancer patients, readmission frequency, characteristics, and their preventability have not been extensively evaluated.