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

Abstract

Background: 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.

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

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

Results: 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.

Conclusions: 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.

Implications: 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.