Abstract
Background: Hospital Score is a well-known and validated tool for predicting readmission risk among diverse patient populations. Integrating social risk factors using natural language processing with the Hospital Score may improve its ability to predict 30-day readmissions following an acute myocardial infarction. Methods: A retrospective cohort included patients hospitalized at Vanderbilt University Medical Center between January 1, 2007, and December 31, 2016, with a primary index diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction, who were discharged alive. To supplement ascertainment of 30-day readmissions, data were linked to Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) administrative data. Clinical notes from the cohort were extracted, and a natural language processing model was deployed, counting mentions of eight social risk factors. A logistic regression prediction model was run using the Hospital Score composite, its component variables, and the natural language processing-derived social risk factors. ROC comparison analysis was performed. Results: The cohort included 6,165 unique patients, where 4,137 (67.1%) were male, 1,020 (16.5%) were Black or other people of color, the average age was 67 years (SD:13), and the 30-day hospital readmission rate was 15.1% (N=934). The final test-set AUROCs were between 0.635 and 0.669. The model containing the Hospital Score component variables and the natural language processing-derived social risk factors obtained the highest AUROC. Discussion: Social risk factors extracted using natural language processing improved model performance when added to the Hospital Score composite. Clinicians and health systems should consider incorporating social risk factors when using the Hospital Score composite to evaluate risk for readmission among patients hospitalized for acute myocardial infarction.