Researchers at Brown
University recently published a statistical analysis on the use of hospital
readmission rates from skilled nursing facilities (SNF) as a gauge for the
quality of care provided at those facilities.
“We do think that it
reflects quality, at least in terms of likelihood of re-hospitalization,” Brown School of Public Health assistant professor Momotazur Rahman, one of the
study’s authors, said.
Elderly patients are
often discharged from hospitals into SNFs, and the federal government recently began
tracking 30-day hospital readmissions on its Nursing Home Compare website to
provide the public with information about these facilities.
The recent study from
Brown sought to determine whether this was a good measure of quality, as
readmission rates could be higher based upon either the facility’s quality of
care or the health of patients that the facilities generally treat, if
sicker patients were sent to specific SNFs.
While data on a patient's state when admitted into an SNF were not readily available, researchers were
able to determine that other factors -- such as proximity to the discharge
hospital or the patient's home, or the number of available beds -- were a strong
predictor of which SNF that patient went to.
These findings allowed the
researchers to determine that readmission rates are likely a good predictor of
the quality of care SNF patients receive.
“Now that the website
is reporting SNF readmissions, having patients choose low-readmission SNFs will
further encourage SNFs to compete on this measure, which would lower the
overall rate of SNF readmissions in the market,” the study’s authors said.
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