Screening for risk of rehospitalization from home care: use of the outcomes assessment information set and the probability of readmission instrument.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the Outcomes Assessment Information Set (OASIS) compared with the Probability of Readmission (P(ra)) instrument for use in predicting rehospitalization during home care. Using logistic regression and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, the P(ra) instrument was found to be significantly better at predicting rehospitalization than the OASIS case mix weight, clinical, or service scores. The area under the curve (AUC) for the P(ra) was .686 compared with .549 for the OASIS case mix weight (p =.010). Similar results were found for the OASIS clinical and service scores. The AUC for the function score of >/=2 (.599) provided the closest approximation to the P(ra) (.686), and the difference between the two was not statistically significant (p =.120). The OASIS function score could be used to identify at-risk home care patients without having to also use the P(ra) instrument.