Implementing a Standardized Transition Care Plan in Skilled Nursing Facilities.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Toles M
PROVIDER: S-EPMC6408978 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:ImportanceTelemedicine in skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) has the potential to improve access and timeliness of care. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 to 2022, telemedicine coverage expanded, but little is known about patterns of use in SNFs.ObjectiveTo describe patterns of telemedicine use in SNFs.Design, setting, and participantsThis cohort study used 2018 to 2022 Medicare fee-for-service claims and Minimum Data Set 3.0 records to identify short- and long-term care SNF residents. Clinician visits were grouped into routine SNF visits (ie, regular primary care within SNF) and other outpatient visits (ie, with non-SNF affiliated primary and specialty care clinicians). Using a difference-in-differences approach, assessments included whether off-hours visits (measured as weekend visits), new specialist visits, psychiatrist visits, or visits for residents with limited mobility changed differentially between 2018 to 2019 and 2020 to 2021 for SNFs with high compared with low telemedicine use in 2020.ExposureTelemedicine adoption at SNF after 2020.Main outcomes and measuresNumber and proportion of telemedicine SNF and outpatient visits.ResultsAcross 15 434 SNFs and 4 463 591 residents from the period January 2019 through June 2022 (mean [SD] age, 79.7 [11.6] years; 61% female in 2020), telemedicine visits increased from 0.15% in January 2019 to February 2020 to 15% SNF visits and 25% outpatient visits in May 2020. By 2022, telemedicine dropped to 2% of SNF visits and 8% of outpatient visits. The proportion of SNFs with any telemedicine visits annually dropped from 91% in 2020 to 61% in 2022. The facilities with high telemedicine use were more likely to be rural (adjusted odds ratio vs urban, 2.06; 95% CI, 1.77 to 2.40). Psychiatry visits differentially increased in high vs low telemedicine-use SNFs (20.2% relative increase; 95% CI, 1.2% to 39.2%). In contrast, there was little change in outpatient visits for residents with limited mobility (7.2%; 95% CI, -0.1% to 14.6%) or new specialist visits (-0.7%; 95% CI, -2.5% to 1.2%).Conclusions and relevanceIn this cohort study of SNF residents, telemedicine was rapidly adopted in early 2020 but subsequently stabilized at a low use rate that was nonetheless higher than before 2020. Higher telemedicine use in SNFs was associated with improved access to psychiatry visits in SNFs. A policy to encourage continued telemedicine use may facilitate further access to important services as the technology matures.
| S-EPMC10439478 | biostudies-literature
Project description:After home health care, the skilled nursing facility (SNF) is the most commonly used postacute care modality, among Medicare beneficiaries, after total joint arthroplasty. Prior studies demonstrated that a loss in postsurgical ambulatory gains is incurred in the interval between hospital discharge and arrival at the SNF. The aim of this present study is to determine the consequences of that loss in function, as well as compare SNF-related outcomes in patients with Medicare vs Managed Care (MC) insurance.We conducted a retrospective analysis of 80 patients (54 Medicare and 26 MC) who attended an SNF after hospitalization for total joint arthroplasty. Outcomes from physical therapy records were abstracted from each patient's SNF file.There was an approximately 40% drop-off in gait achievements between hospital discharge and SNF admission. This decline in ambulation was significantly greater in Medicare patients (Medicare: 94.6 ± 123.2 ft, MC: 40.0 ± 48.9 ft, P = .034). Larger reductions in gait achievements between hospital discharge and SNF admission were significantly correlated with longer SNF lengths of stay and poorer gait achievements by SNF discharge. Patients with MC insurance made significant improvements in gait training at the SNF beyond that which was acquired at the hospital, whereas Medicare patients did not (PMedicare = .28, PMC = .003).Large losses in motor function between hospital discharge and SNF admission were associated with poor functional outcomes and longer stays at the SNF. These effects were more pronounced in Medicare patients than those with MC insurance.
| S-EPMC5712017 | biostudies-other
Project description:OBJECTIVES:To determine how the risk of subsequent long-term care (LTC) placement varies between skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) and the SNF characteristics associated with this risk. DESIGN:Population-based national cohort study with participants nested in SNFs and hospitals in a cross-classified multilevel model. SETTING:SNFs (N=6,680). PARTICIPANTS:Fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries (N=552,414) discharged from a hospital to a SNF in 2013. MEASUREMENTS:Participant characteristics from Medicare data and the Minimum Data Set. SNF characteristics from Medicare and Nursing Home Compare. Outcome was a stay of 90 days or longer in a LTC nursing home within 6 months of SNF admission. RESULTS:Within 6 months of SNF admission, 10.4% of participants resided in LTC. After adjustments for participant characteristics, the SNF where a participant received care explained 7.9% of the variance in risk of LTC, whereas the prior hospital explained 1.0%. Individuals in SNFs with excellent quality ratings had 22% lower odds of transitioning to LTC than those in SNFs with poor ratings (odds ratio=0.78, 95% confidence interval=0.74-0.84). Variation between SNFs and associations with quality markers were greater in sensitivity analyses limited to individuals least likely to require LTC. Results were essentially the same in a number of other sensitivity analyses designed to reduce potential confounding. CONCLUSION:Risk of subsequent LTC placement, an important and negatively viewed outcome for older adults, varies substantially between SNFs. Individuals in higher-quality SNFs are at lower risk.
| S-EPMC6181774 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Background:Understanding and addressing racial and ethnic disparities in the quality of post-acute care in skilled nursing facilities is an important health policy issue, particularly as the Medicare program initiates value-based payments for these institutions. Methods:Our final cohort included 649,187 Medicare beneficiaries in either the fee-for-service or Medicare Advantage programs, who were 65 and older and were admitted to a skilled nursing facility following an acute hospital stay, from 8,375 skilled nursing facilities. We examined the quality of care in skilled nursing facilities that disproportionately serve minority patients compared to non-Hispanic whites. Three measures, all calculated at the level of the facility, were used to assess quality of care in skilled nursing facilities: 1) 30-day rehospitalization rate; 2) successful discharge from the facility to the community; and 3) Medicare five-star quality ratings. Results:We found that African-American post-acute patients are highly concentrated in a small number of institutions, with 28% of facilities accounting for 80% of all post-acute admissions for African-American patients. Similarly, just 20% of facilities accounted for 80% of all admissions for Hispanics. Skilled nursing facilities with higher fractions of African-American patients had worse performance for three publicly-reported quality measures: rehospitalization, successful discharge to the community, and the star rating indicator. Conclusions:Efforts to address disparities should focus attention on institutions that disproportionately serve minority patients and monitor unintended consequences of value-based payments to skilled nursing facilities.
| S-EPMC6477650 | biostudies-other
Project description:ImportancePatient transitions from hospitals to skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) require robust information sharing. After a decade of investment in health information technology infrastructure and new incentives to promote hospital-SNF coordination in the US, the current state of information sharing at this critical transition is unknown.ObjectiveTo measure the completeness, timeliness, and usability of information shared by hospitals when discharging patients to SNFs, and to identify relational and structural characteristics associated with better hospital-SNF information sharing.Design, setting, and participantsSurvey of 500 SNFs from a US nationally representative sample (265 respondents representing 471 hospital-SNF pairs; response rate of 53.0%) that collected detailed data on information sharing that supports care transitions from each of the 2 hospitals from which they receive the largest volume of patient referrals. Survey administration occurred between January 2019 and March 2020.Main outcomes and measuresOverall assessment of information completeness, timeliness, and usability using 5-point Likert scales. Detailed measures, including (1) completeness-routine sharing of 23 specific information types; (2) timeliness-how often information arrived after the patient; and (3) usability-whether information was duplicative, extraneous, or not tailored to SNF needs. In addition, 8 relational characteristics (eg, shared staffing, collaborative meetings, and referral volume) and 10 structural characteristics (eg, size, ownership, and staffing) were assessed as potential factors associated with better information sharing.ResultsOf 471 hospital-SNF pairs, 64 (13.5%) reported excellent performance on all 3 dimensions of information sharing, whereas 141 (30.0%) were at or below the mean performance on all dimensions. Social status (missing in 309 pairs [65.7%]) and behavioral status (missing in 319 pairs [67.7%]) were the most common types of missing information. Receipt of hospital information was delayed, sometimes (159 pairs [33.8%]) or often (77 pairs [16.4%]) arriving after the patient. In total, 358 pairs [76.0%] reported at least 1 usability shortcoming. Having a hospital clinician on site at the SNF was associated in multivariate analysis with more complete (odds ratio, 1.72; 95% CI, 1.07-2.78; P = .03), timely (odds ratio, 1.76; 95% CI, 1.08-2.88; P = .02), and usable (odds ratio, 1.64; 95% CI, 1.02-2.63; P = .04) information sharing. Hospital accountable care organization participation was associated with more timely information sharing (odds ratio, 1.88; 95% CI, 1.13-3.14; P = .02).Conclusions and relevanceIn this study, US SNFs reported significant shortcomings in the completeness, timeliness, and usability of information provided by hospitals to support patient transitions. These shortcomings are likely associated with a suboptimal transition experience. Shared clinicians represent a potential strategy to improve information sharing but are costly. New payment models such as accountable care organizations may offer a more scalable approach but were only associated with more timely sharing.
| S-EPMC7809587 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Background: As hospitals in the US face pressures to reduce lengths of stay, healthcare systems are increasingly utilizing skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) to continue treating patients stable enough to leave the hospital, but not to return home. Substance use disorder (SUD) can complicate care of patients transferred to SNFs. The objective of this paper is to understand SNF experiences for this population of patients with comorbid SUD transferred to SNFs and examine care experiences in these facilities. Methods: This secondary mixed-methods analysis focuses on SNF experiences from a clinical trial of patient navigation services for medically-hospitalized adults with comorbid opioid, cocaine, and/or alcohol use disorder. This study compared baseline assessments and medical record review for participants (N = 400) with vs. without SNF transfer, and analyzed semi-structured qualitative interviews with a subsample of 15 participants purposively selected based on their transfer to a SNF. Results: Over 1 in 4 participants had a planned discharged to a SNF (26.8% sub-acute, 3.3% acute). Compared to participants with other types of discharge, participants discharged to a SNF had longer initial hospitalizations (4.9 vs. 11.8 days, p < 0.001), and were more likely to be White (38.6 vs. 50.8%; p = 0.02), female (38.9 vs. 52.5%; p = 0.01), have opioid use disorder (75.7 vs. 85.0%, p = 0.03), and be hospitalized for infection (43.6 vs. 58.3%; p = 0.007), and less likely to have worked prior to hospitalization (24.3 vs. 12.5%; p = 0.006). Qualitative narratives identified several themes from the SNF experience, including opioid analgesic dosing issues, challenges to the use of opioid agonist treatment of OUD, illicit opioid dealing/use, and limited access to addiction recovery support services during and following the SNF stay. Conclusions: SNFs are a common disposition for patients in need of subacute services following hospitalization but may be ill-equipped to properly manage patients in need of new or continuing SUD treatment.
| S-EPMC9793431 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ObjectivesTo address concerns that postacute cost-sharing may deter high-need beneficiaries from participating in Medicare Advantage (MA) plans, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have capped cost-sharing for skilled nursing facility (SNF) services in MA plans since 2011. This study examines whether SNF use, inpatient use, and plan disenrollment changed following stricter regulations in 2015 that required most MA plans to eliminate or substantially reduce cost-sharing for SNF care.DesignDifference-in-differences retrospective analysis from 2013 to 2016.SettingMA plans.ParticipantsThirty-one million MA members in 320 plans with mandatory cost-sharing reductions and 261 plans without such reductions.MeasurementsMean monthly number of SNF admissions, SNF days, hospitalizations, and plan disenrollees per 1000 members.ResultsMean total cost-sharing for the first 20 days of SNF services decreased from $911 to $104 in affected plans. Relative to concurrent changes in plans without mandated cost-sharing reductions, plans with mandatory cost-sharing reductions experienced no significant differences in the number of SNF days per 1000 members (adjusted between-group difference: 0.4 days per 1000 members [95% confidence interval (95% CI), -5.2 to 6.0, P=0.89], small decreases in the number of hospitalizations per 1000 members [adjusted between-group difference: 0.6 admissions per 1000 members (95% CI, -1.0 to -0.1; P=0.03)], and small decreases in the number of SNF users who disenrolled at year-end [adjusted between-group difference: -16.8 disenrollees per 1000 members (95% CI, -31.9 to -1.8; P=0.03)].ConclusionsMandated reductions in SNF cost-sharing may have curbed selective disenrollment from MA plans without significantly increasing use of SNF services.
| S-EPMC7880533 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ObjectiveTo understand how hospital-based clinicians evaluate older adults in the hospital and decide who will be transferred to a skilled nursing facility (SNF) for postacute care.DesignSemistructured interviews paired with a qualitative analytical approach informed by Social Constructivist theory.SettingInpatient care units in three hospitals. Purposive sampling was used to maximize variability in hospitals, units within hospitals, and staff on those units.ParticipantsClinicians (hospitalists, nurses, therapists, social workers, case managers) involved in evaluation and decision-making regarding postacute care (N = 25).MeasurementsCentral themes related to clinician evaluation and discharge decision-making.ResultsClinicians described pressure to expedite evaluation and discharge decisions, resulting in the use of SNFs as a "safety net" for older adults being discharged from the hospital. The lack of hospital-based clinician knowledge of SNF care practices, quality, or patient outcomes resulted in lack of a standardized evaluation process or a clear primary decision-maker.ConclusionHospital clinician evaluation and decision-making about postacute care in SNFs may be characterized as rushed, without a clear system or framework for making decisions and uninformed by knowledge of SNF or patient outcomes in those discharged to SNFs. This leads to SNFs being used as a "safety net" for many older adults. As hospitals and SNFs are increasingly held jointly accountable for outcomes of individuals transitioning between hospitals and SNFs, novel solutions for improving evaluation and decision-making are urgently needed.
| S-EPMC5681432 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundIn the US, post-acute care in skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) is common and outcomes vary greatly across facilities. Little is known about the expectations of patients and their caregivers about physician care during the hospital to SNF transition. Our objectives were to (1) describe the experiences and expectations of patients and their caregivers with SNF physicians in SNFs, and (2) identify patterns that differed between patients with vs. without cognitive impairment.MethodsThis qualitative study used grounded theory approach to analyze data collected from semi-structured interviews at five SNFs in January-August 2018. Patients admitted for short-term SNF care 5-10 days prior were eligible to participate. Thematic analysis was performed to detect recurrent themes with a focus on modifiable aspects of physician care. Analysis was stratified by patient cognitive impairment (measured by the Montreal Cognitive Assessment at the time of the interview).ResultsFifty patients and six caregivers were interviewed. Major themes were: (1) patients had poor awareness of the physician in charge of their care; (2) they were dissatisfied with the frequency of interaction with the physician; and (3) participants valued the perception of receiving individualized care from the physician. Less cognitively impaired patients were more concerned about limited interactions with the physicians and were more likely to report attempts to seek out the physician.ConclusionPatient and caregiver expectations of SNF physicians were not well aligned with their experiences. SNFs aiming to improve satisfaction with care may focus efforts in this area, such as facilitating frequent communication between physicians, patients and caregivers.
| S-EPMC7653446 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundHealth care is believed to be suffered from a "cost disease," in which a heavy reliance on labor limits opportunities for efficiencies stemming from technological improvement. Although recent evidence shows that U.S. hospitals have experienced a positive trend of productivity growth, skilled nursing facilities are relatively "low-tech" compared to hospitals, leading some to worry that productivity at skilled nursing facilities will lag behind the rest of the economy.ObjectiveTo assess productivity growth among skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) in the treatment of conditions which frequently involve substantial post-acute care after hospital discharge.MethodsWe constructed an analytic file with the records of Medicare beneficiaries that were discharged from acute-care hospitals to SNFs with stroke, hip fracture, or lower extremity joint replacement (LEJR) between 2006 and 2014. We populated each record for 90 days starting at the time of SNF admission, detailing for each day the treatment site and all associated costs. We used ordinary least square regression to estimate growth in SNF productivity, measured by the ratio of "high-quality SNF stays" to total treatment costs. The primary definition of a high-quality stay was a stay that ended with the return of the patient to the community within 90 days after SNF admission. We controlled for patient demographics and comorbidities in the regression analyses.ResultsOur sample included 1,076,066 patient stays at 14,394 SNFs with LEJR, 315,546 patient stays at 14,154 SNFs with stroke, and 739,608 patient stays at 14,588 SNFs with hip fracture. SNFs improved their productivity in the treatment of patients with LEJR, stroke, and hip fracture by 1.1%, 2.2%, and 2.0% per year, respectively. That pattern was robust to a number of alternative specifications. Regressions on year dummies showed that the productivity first decreased and then increased, with a lowest point in 2011. Over the study period, quality continued to rise, but dominated by higher costs at first. Costs then started to decrease, driving productivity to grow.ConclusionThere has been substantial productivity growth in recent years among SNFs in the U.S. in the treatment of post-acute-care-intensive conditions.
| S-EPMC6474610 | biostudies-literature