Brown study suggests readmission rates can predict quality of care in skilled nursing facilities

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.