Patterns of morbidity and multimorbidity associated with early and late readmissions in an Australian regional health service.

Objectives: To describe morbidity and multimorbidity patterns among adults readmitted to an Australian regional health service, in terms of occurrence of the same and different morbidities at index admission and readmission.

Methods: This cohort study used hospital admissions data for patients admitted between 1 July 2014 and 30 June 2016 to estimate proportions of unplanned readmissions ('early' within 30 days and 'late' within 1-6 months) with the same and different morbidities as the index admission. Readmission rates were estimated by selected sociodemographic, admission and diagnostic characteristics.

Here one year, gone the next? Investigating persistence of frequent emergency department attendance: a retrospective study in Australia.

Objectives: Patients are presenting to emergency departments (EDs) with increasing complexity at rates beyond population growth and ageing. Intervention studies target patients with 12 months or less of frequent attendance. However, these interventions are not well targeted since most patients do not remain frequent attenders.

Trends in unplanned readmissions over 15 years: a regional Australian perspective.

Objective The aim of this study was to assess 15-year trends in unplanned readmissions in an Australian regional health service. Methods Drawing on data held in the Illawarra Health Information Platform (IHIP), this longitudinal retrospective study of adults admitted to hospital between 2001-02 and 2015-16 assessed rates of unplanned all-cause readmissions within 30 days ('early') and 1-6 months ('late') following discharge. Rates were compared over time and between patient groups.