Plentiful evidence shows that patients with multiple comorbidities, frequent emergency room visits or other frailty indicators are more likely to present for readmission to hospital within a short time following their last discharge. Many of these readmissions are preventable, mostly through anticipation, communication and provision of post-discharge supports.
AHS uses the "LACE readmission risk index" to stratify patients into those who are at low, moderate or high risk for early readmission. The index considers the patient's length of stay, admission type, comorbidities and frequency of emergency room visits.
Most of the information needed to calculate a LACE Index is available to Connect Care in-system, and does not need to be entered by prescribers. An automatically calculated LACE Index has been developed for Connect Care and has been tested during summer 2022. It is now in production, continually updated for all inpatients.