Premium
Retracted: Identifying patient readmission subtypes from unplanned readmissions to hospitals in Hong Kong: A cluster analysis
Author(s) -
Chan Moonfai,
Wong Frances K. Y.,
Chang Katherine,
Chow Susan,
Chung Loretta,
Lee Waiman,
Lee Rance
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
nursing and health sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.563
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1442-2018
pISSN - 1441-0745
DOI - 10.1111/j.1442-2018.2009.00427.x
Subject(s) - cluster (spacecraft) , affect (linguistics) , medicine , health care , family medicine , medical emergency , emergency medicine , psychology , communication , computer science , economics , programming language , economic growth
It has been conjectured with regard to patient readmission patterns that there might be significant differences in patient characteristics, need factors, enabling resources, and health behavior. The aim of this study was to identify the profiles of readmitted patients in Hong Kong ( n = 120) based on their predisposing characteristics, needs, health behavior, and enabling resources. All the readmitted patients were recruited to the study in three hospitals from 2003 to 2005. A cluster analysis yielded three clusters: Clusters 1, 2, and 3 constituted 27.5% ( n = 33), 27.5% ( n = 33), and 45.0% ( n = 54) of the total sample, respectively. The study results show that community nurse services do affect the rate at which patients are admitted to hospital for a second time. The findings might help by providing important information that will enable health‐care policy‐makers to identify strategies to target a specific group of patients in the hope of reducing its readmission rate.