Rehospitalization rates after adult cardiac surgery could be unrelated to quality and should not be used in hospital benchmarking

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have selected unplanned readmissions within 30 days of discharge as one of several measures of quality, and hospitals deemed low quality are financially penalized. This national study of cardiac surgical patients suggests that rehospitalization rates following adult cardiac surgery may not be a stable marker of quality and should not be used in hospital benchmark.