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Mental Health A Common Reason for Hospital Stays and Readmissions

In addition to the significant obstacles to accessing care faced by the mentally ill, patients often fail to receive quality care. Roughly 15 percent of all mental health patients discharged from the hospital are readmitted for the same cause within 30 days, accounting for $2.3 billion dollars in hospital bills in 2013. High readmission rates become a bigger problem when the number of mental health related hospitalizations are considered. Mood disorders—a type of mental illness classification by the Clinical Classifications Software (CCS)—were the most common reasons for hospital stays in 2013 among the under-65 population. Schizophrenia and alcohol-related disorders are two other examples of mental illnesses that result in high numbers of hospitalizations coupled with high readmission rates—20 percent and 18 percent respectively. This raises questions about the quality of care that people with mental illness receive as they navigate the mental health system.[1]



[1] All data retrieved from http://hcupnet.ahrq.gov/HCUPnet.jsp?Id=7F44586CE31A502D&Form=DispTab&GoTo=MAINSEL&JS=Y

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