Shifting the dialogue from hospital readmissions to unplanned care.

Objectives: To propose a new measurement strategy to evaluate the intended impact of hospital readmission reduction programs on healthcare utilization.

Study Design: In Rhode Island, Healthcentric Advisors, the Medicare Quality Improvement Organization, has implemented a readmissions reduction program since 2008. We use data fromthis program to illustrate our proposed use of a bundled measure of unplanned post-hospital care.