Rapid Discharge to Home After Total Knee Arthroplasty Is Safe in Eligible Medicare Patients

This study was aimed at assessing the risk of readmission for Medicare patients discharged home within a day of total knee arthroplasty (TKA) compared to those discharged on day 2 or beyond in a community medical center.

A hospital inpatient database was queried for all unilateral, primary TKAs performed on patients 65 years or older from January 1, 2013, to December 31, 2015. A total of 2287 patients met the study criteria, of which 1502 were discharged within a day (short stay), and 785 were discharged on day 2 or beyond (traditional stay). The main outcome measures were all-cause 30-day and unplanned 90-day readmissions.

Short-stay patients did not experience a higher 30-day readmission rate (1.1%) compared to the traditional-stay patients (2.7%), nor did they experience a higher rate of unplanned 90-day readmissions (1.7% vs 3.6%). The short-stay group had more favorable demographics compared to the traditional-stay group. Logistic regression results revealed that none of the demographic factors considered had a statistically significant impact on 30-day readmission odds for either group. For unplanned 90-day readmissions, the results showed that for the short-stay patients, with the exception of age, none of the other demographic factors had significant impact on readmission odds and none were significant for the traditional-stay group.

Our results suggest that the Medicare patients meeting discharge criteria and discharged home within a day of TKA do not have an increased risk of 30-day and 90-day readmission.