Regional scope of practice and hospital readmission

One in six people who are hospitalized in the United States will be readmitted within 30-days of initial discharge. We investigate expanding the scope of practice for nurse practitioners and regional readmission rates. Using Census region data on readmission rates, we determine the effect of a member state expanding nurse practitioner job autonomy with the probability of an individual being readmitted to the hospital. We find that there is an approximate one percent reduction in readmissions within a Census region when a state expands scope of practice to allow for some or all tasks to be performed without a supervisory or collaborative agreement. We find no evidence of increasing readmissions when nurse practitioners' scope of practice is expanded.

Automated summary

One in six people who are hospitalized in the United States will be readmitted within 30 days of initial discharge. We investigated the impact of expanding nurse practitioners' scope of practice on regional readmission rates. Our findings suggest that when a state expands the autonomy of nurse practitioners, the readmission rates within a Census region can be reduced by approximately one percent, without any evidence of increasing readmission rates.