Ross KH, Jaar BG, Lea JP, et al. - Using the United States Renal Data System, researchers analyzed data on incident dialysis patients with Medicare coverage in order to estimate the link between hospital admissions and readmissions in the first year of dialysis and outcomes in the second year among 128,593 Medicare end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate the link between readmission pattern and death, hospitalization, and kidney transplantation, accounting for demographic and clinical covariates. A substantially higher risk of poor outcomes was observed in patients with readmissions in the first year of dialysis vs either patients who had no admissions or patients who had hospital admissions but no readmissions. In this substantial, high-risk group of ESRD patients, improved outcomes may be achieved by finding strategies to both prevent readmission and alleviate risk among patients who had readmission.