Talk to the Veterans Crisis Line now
U.S. flag
An official website of the United States government
Veterans Benefits and Health Care About VA Find a VA Location

VA Health Systems Research

Go to the VA ORD website
Go to the QUERI website

HSR Citation Abstract

Search | Search by Center | Search by Source | Keywords in Title

The Contribution of Skilled Nursing Facilities to Hospitals' Readmission Rate.

Rahman M, McHugh J, Gozalo PL, Ackerly DC, Mor V. The Contribution of Skilled Nursing Facilities to Hospitals' Readmission Rate. Health services research. 2017 Apr 1; 52(2):656-675.

Dimensions for VA is a web-based tool available to VA staff that enables detailed searches of published research and research projects.

If you have VA-Intranet access, click here for more information vaww.hsrd.research.va.gov/dimensions/

VA staff not currently on the VA network can access Dimensions by registering for an account using their VA email address.    Search Dimensions for VA for this citation
* Don't have VA-internal network access or a VA email address? Try searching the free-to-the-public version of Dimensions


Abstract:

OBJECTIVE: To examine the relative influence of hospital and skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) on 30-day rehospitalization. DATA SOURCES/SETTINGS: Elderly Medicare beneficiaries newly admitted to a SNF following hospitalization. STUDY DESIGN: We ranked hospitals and SNFs into quartiles based on previous years' adjusted rehospitalization rates (ARRs) and examined how rehospitalizations from a given hospital vary depending upon the admitting SNF ARR quartile. We examined whether the availability of SNFs with low rehospitalization rates influenced hospitals' SNF readmission rates and whether changes in a hospital's ARR over 3 years is associated with changes in the SNFs to which they discharge. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Hospital readmission rates from SNFs varied 5 percentage points between patients discharged to SNFs in the lowest and the highest rehospitalization quartiles. Low rehospitalization rate hospitals sent a larger fraction of their patients to the lowest rehospitalization SNFs available in the area. A 10 percent increase in hospital's share of discharges to the lowest rehospitalization quartile SNFs is associated with a 1 percentage point reduction in hospital's ARR. CONCLUSIONS: The SNF rehospitalization rate has greater influence on patients' risk of rehospitalization than the discharging hospital. Identifying high-performing SNFs may be a powerful strategy for hospitals to reduce rehospitalizations.




Questions about the HSR website? Email the Web Team

Any health information on this website is strictly for informational purposes and is not intended as medical advice. It should not be used to diagnose or treat any condition.