Timing of stroke survivors' hospital readmissions to guide APRNs in primary care

Caring for patients after a neurovascular incident is common for advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs). Most neurological readmission studies focus on a small subset of neurovascular incident groups, but advanced practice nurses in primary care attend to a diverse neurovascular population and lack time to adequately search hospital records.

The aim of this study was to determine readmission risk factors after a neurovascular incident to guide APRNs in the primary care setting.

The study is a retrospective observational study that used a crude single predictor model to determine potential risks for readmission.

A total of 876 neurovascular participants were studied. Of these, only 317 experienced at least one hospital readmission, with 703 readmissions within 1 year, indicating some were readmitted more than once. Risks for readmission varied across neurovascular events. The main reasons for readmission were because of neurological, cardiovascular, and musculoskeletal complications.

Stroke readmission rates are high and require intervention by APRNs. To prevent readmission includes timely follow-up within 30 days and should also include longitudinal follow-up beyond 90 days to prevent hospital readmission.

Future studies are needed to create guidelines for APRNs that implement rehabilitation strategies to decrease hospital readmission for the neurovascular population that focus on interdisciplinary communication.