Post–Acute Care Use and Hospital Readmission after Sepsis

Rationale: The epidemiology of post–acute care use and hospital readmission after sepsis remains largely unknown.Objectives: To examine the rate of post–acute care use and hospital readmission after sepsis and to examine risk factors and outcomes for hospital readmissions after sepsis.Methods: In an observational cohort study conducted in an academic health care system (2010–2012), we compared post–acute care use at discharge and hospital readmission after 3,620 sepsis hospitalizations with 108,958 nonsepsis hospitalizations. We used three validated, claims-based approaches to identify sepsis and severe sepsis.Measurements and Main Results: Post–acute care use at discharge was more likely after sepsis, driven by skilled care facility placement (35.4% after sepsis vs. 15.8%; P