Readmission Risk Based on Debility and Psychosocial Measures: The Western 9 Algorithm

Abstract

Many studies have stressed the importance of psychosocial determinants of health such as food insecurity, housing instability, and education level, as important drivers of health outcomes. Western Health developed a set of nine screening questions (the Western 9) based on psychosocial measures to profile patients enrolled in the HealthLinks Chronic Care initiative. An aggregate score was then converted into a Low, Medium and High risk profiles. The aim of the study was to see if the Western 9 questions added additional discriminative power to existing risk of readmission algorithms. Results show that the inclusion of the risk profiles significantly improved model fit and calibration compared to a baseline risk model. Suggestions for further refinement include developing weighted indices for the Western 9 to improve model fit.