Readmission Dashboard
Readmission Dashboard
Introduction
The APCD Readmission Dashboard provides a statewide view of hospital readmissions in Georgia using inpatient claims from the All-Payer Claims Database. It is designed to help users explore how often patients are admitted again to the hospital within 30 days of discharge and how those patterns vary over time, across communities, by hospital, and for specific health conditions. High readmission rates can reflect poor quality of care, higher-risk patient pools, or challenges faced by patients post-discharge or in receiving follow-up care.
Description of Dashboard Tabs
The dashboard is organized into four tabs:
- Overall
This tab provides a statewide summary of hospital readmissions over time, offering a broad overview of readmission patterns across Georgia. Users can view annual trends in the 30-day readmission rate, the number of index hospital admissions (defined in methodology section below) included in the analysis, how soon readmissions occur after discharge, and how rates differ across age, sex, and payer groups. - Geography
This tab shows how readmission rates vary across different parts of the state by admission year. Users can explore county-level patterns and compare rates by distance patients travelled to seek care as well as by community characteristics, including measures of social vulnerability and urbanicity. - Facility
This tab focuses on variation across hospitals by admission year. Users can compare readmission rates by facility and examine facility-level patient risk scores and distribution of index admissions by payer, age group, and risk category. Readmission rates for diagnosis or procedure groups with the highest index admissions counts are also shown in total and by facility. - Condition
This tab provides a more detailed view for specific diagnosis groups with the highest index admission counts by admission year. For a given condition, users can display the number of index admissions, the 30-day readmission rate, whether the return visit was related to the same condition, and how readmission rates vary by hospital, payer, patient risk score, and demographic characteristics.
Together, these tabs allow users to move from a broad statewide overview to more detailed views of readmission, which facilities and conditions are most affected, and which patient populations may face higher risk.
Methods
Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria
Claims were excluded if they were denied or orphaned adjustments. Only primary paid claims were included. The analysis was limited to acute inpatient claims, identified based on place of service, bill type, or revenue codes. Patients treated in Georgia with admission dates between January 1, 2019 and December 31, 2025 were included for analysis.
The analysis focused on adult inpatient admissions. Claims were excluded from the main admission-building population if the patient was younger than 18 years, the stay was classified as mental health/substance use or obstetric/newborn-related based on diagnosis-related group or diagnosis codes. COVID-19 admissions were flagged for later exclusion from index admissions rather than removed at the initial claims stage.
To construct hospital admissions from claims, inpatient claim lines were grouped using member IDs, provider IDs, admission date and discharge dates (or service dates if missing), as well as admission and discharge status. Admission aggregation also took into account overlapping dates or transfers happening within a day of the prior discharge. A primary diagnosis and procedure were assigned to each admission using the codes associated with the highest total paid amount within the admission.
Using the definitions from Medicaid’s Plan All-Cause Readmissions and CMS’ Hospital-Wide All-Cause Readmission, admissions were flagged as index admissions or readmissions.
Index Admission
An admission was considered eligible as an index admission if it met the inpatient inclusion criteria above and the patient had at least one month of medical eligibility after discharge. Admissions were excluded from being index admissions if the patient died during the stay, left against medical advice, was transferred to another acute care hospital, was admitted as a transfer from another acute care hospital or between units, or had COVID-19 listed as the principal or admitting diagnosis.
Readmission
Admissions were considered eligible to serve as readmissions if they met the inpatient inclusion criteria and were not classified as planned admissions. Specifically, admissions were excluded as readmissions if they involved always planned procedures, or if they involved potentially planned procedures without an accompanying acute diagnosis or procedure override.
For each eligible index admission, if there was at least one eligible return hospitalization within 30 days of discharge, the index admission was flagged as having a readmission. Readmissions did not need to be to the same facility or attributed to the same condition to be counted as a readmission.
Average Distance to Service
Distance to service is based on the straight-line distance between the centroids of the patient and provider zip codes. Distance to service is only calculated for providers with populated zip code information and located in Georgia (not available otherwise).
Social Vulnerability Index
County-level classifications are based on the 2022 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (CDC/ATSDR) Social Vulnerability Index (SVI). It includes the total SVI score (an overall reflection of social vulnerability) and 4 high level themes of social vulnerabilities. The scores are aggregated in quartiles of low, low-medium, medium-high, and high risk, with a higher risk indicating greater vulnerability.
Urban-Rural Classification
The CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) Urban-Rural Classification Scheme for Counties is a six-level measure of urbanicity based on the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) county divisions for metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas.
Payer
The payer for an admission is assigned as Commercial, Medicaid, and Medicare (includes Medicare Advantage) based on the submitter and plan type from patient eligibility records.
Caveats and Limitations
Missing Data
This Snapshot is based on data present in the Georgia All-Payer Claims Database with service dates through Dec 31, 2025. The GA APCD is still missing important payer data that will be added in the coming year, e.g. recent data for the State Health Benefit Plan. Data from self-insured plans were not included in this Snapshot. Metrics may thus change in subsequent releases as these data and additional historical data are added.
Data Suppression and De-Identification
Cell sizes of fewer than 11 admissions (directly reported or derived from percentages) are suppressed, aggregated, or coarsened in the dashboard. APCD data is de-identified, used, and disclosed with guidance from the US Department of Health and Human Services in accordance with section 164.514(a) of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule.