Abstract
The following quote was obtained by the news editors from the background informa tion supplied bythe inventors: “Patients discharged from an acute care facility , such as an emergency room or hospital,and placed in a post-acute care facilit y, such as a nursing or rehabilitation home, are at risk of beingreadmitted to the acute care facility. This is especially true for older patients and patients with moreor complex medical issues. At times, the initial reason for going to the acute care facility may result ina number of undiagnosed or unidentified co nditions that worsen after the patient is discharged. Theseundiagnosed or unide ntified conditions can cause serious harm to a patient and force him or her to b ereturned to an acute care facility. Similarly, patients can be treated for one condition while left untreatedfor another that was not readily known. As such, improving the ability of post-acute care facilities toidentify the patients mo st at risk for returning to the acute care facility improves the chances for patients to make a full recovery. However, determining which patients are most like ly to be readmitted toan acute care facility is not as simple as examining the patients’ medical history, as there are numerousunpredictable reasons why some patients are readmitted, and others not.
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