Investigating Causes and Factors Affecting the Increase in Rehospitalization Costs in Imam Khomeini Hospital of Ahvaz (2023-2024)

Background: Readmission of patients due to various reasons such as disease return, infection, treatment follow-up, disease severity, as well as the patient's non-compliance with the provided trainings, causes hospital beds to be occupied and increases treatment costs for patients and hospital. The present study was conducted with the aim of investigating causes and factors affecting the increase in rehospitalization costs of patients in Imam Khomeini Hospital of Ahvaz city in 2023-2024. Methods: The research population in the present descriptive-analytical study included patients who admitted in the hospital in 2023-2024 with the same reason as the previous hospitalization. In this research, 240 patient files were randomly selected as the research sample. The collection tool was a checklist and data analysis was done by descriptive and inferential statistical tests and logistic regression using Stata 17 software. Results: According to the findings of the study, most of the rehospitalization cases (30 %) were related to ophthalmology ward, followed by emergency and urology wards. The most common reason for rehospitalization was disease recurrence (58.33 %). The average cost of rehospitalization was 179,995,040 Rials, which rehospitalization due to infection accounted for 57.78 % of the total costs. Variables of marital status and length of stay more than 5 days had a significant effect in increasing hospitalization costs, and the presence of armed forces insurance had a significant effect in reducing hospitalization costs (p < 0.05). Conclusion: The most common causes of rehospitalization were disease recurrence, treatment follow-up, infection, and other causes. The ophthalmology, emergency, and urology wards had the most readmission, and most of costs were related to infectious patients. It is suggested that proper training be given to the staff and patients in order to prevent unnecessary referrals and to pay more attention to the follow-up of patients after discharge.Rehospitalization, Costs, HospitalRehospitalization, Costs, Hospital