[Patient readmission. Medical diagnosis and risk factors of emergency readmission within 14 days]

Every tenth patient discharged from a medical department at a general hospital in Sweden during the period, 1992-1994, required emergency re-admission within 14 days. The risk of re-admission appeared to be unrelated to the duration of hospitalisation before discharge or to the occupancy rate. However, a high risk of emergency re-admission was found to be associated with four diagnoses: acute myocardial infarction, angina pectoris, heart failure and chronic obstructive lung disease. Plans are under way to launch a multicentre intervention study of emergency re-admission to departments of medicine.