At too many hospitals, a revolving door

Given the inadequacies in care for discharged patients — a well-documented and common problem — is it any wonder that so many bounce back to hospitals after they're sent home? Medicare, the government's health care program for seniors, has trained its sights on the issue and is focused on trying to reduce the number of seniors readmitted to hospitals shortly after being sent home. Nearly one in five older adults discharged from a hospital returns within 30 days, at an annual cost of $17.4 billion, according to a recent study in The New England Journal of Medicine.