RESUMO
OBJECTIVES: Geographic variation in the use of post-acute care (PAC - skilled nursing facility and home health care) after hospital discharge is substantial, but reasons for this remain largely unexplored. PAC use in urban hospitals compared to rural hospitals may be one key contributor. We aimed to describe PAC use, explore substitution of one type of PAC for another, and identify how PAC use varies by diagnosis in urban and rural settings. STUDY DESIGN: Secondary analysis of the 2012 National Inpatient Sample including adult discharges to PAC after a hospitalization. METHODS: We adjusted for differences in patient demographics, comorbidities, hospital care provided, and hospital information, comparing use of PAC in urban and rural settings in multivariable logistic regression. RESULTS: Rural patients discharged from rural hospitals constituted 188,137 (12.1%) of the 1.56 million discharges in the sample. Rural discharges received less home health care (0.85; 0.80-0.90) than urban discharges, resulting in less rural PAC use overall (0.95; 0.91-0.99). Rural discharges received more overall PAC for stroke (OR 1.11; 95% CI 1.03-1.19) and less PAC for sepsis (0.92; 0.86-0.98), hip fracture (0.82; 0.70-0.96), and elective joint arthroplasty, where rural discharges had 41% lower odds of receiving PAC (0.59; 0.49-0.71). CONCLUSIONS: The striking differences in receipt of post-acute care in urban and rural patients may constitute a disparity. Evaluation of costs and outcomes of PAC use in these settings is urgently needed as Medicare expands bundled payments for this care.
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OBJECTIVE: To assess patient- and hospital-level factors associated with home health care (HHC) referrals following nonelective U.S. patient hospitalizations in 2012. DATA SOURCE: The 2012 National Inpatient Sample (NIS). STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective, cross-sectional multivariable logistic regression modeling to assess patient- and hospital-level variables in patient discharges with versus without HHC referrals. DATA COLLECTION: Analysis included 1,109,905 discharges in patients ≥65 years with Medicare. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: About 29.2 percent of discharges were referred to HHC, which were more likely with older age, female sex, urban location, low income, longer length of stay, higher severity of illness scores, diagnoses of heart failure or sepsis, and hospital location in New England (referent: Pacific). CONCLUSIONS: As health policy changes influence postacute HHC, defining specific diagnoses and regional patterns associated with HHC is a first step to optimize postacute HHC services.
Assuntos
Serviços de Assistência Domiciliar/estatística & dados numéricos , Alta do Paciente/estatística & dados numéricos , Encaminhamento e Consulta/estatística & dados numéricos , Fatores Etários , Idoso , Idoso de 80 Anos ou mais , Estudos Transversais , Feminino , Humanos , Tempo de Internação , Masculino , Estudos Retrospectivos , Fatores Sexuais , Estados UnidosRESUMO
BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: The number of patients discharged to postacute care (PAC) facilities after hospitalization increased by 50% nationally between 1996 and 2010. We sought to describe payors and patients most affected by this trend and to identify diagnoses for which PAC facility care may be substituting for continued hospital care. DESIGN: Retrospective analysis of the National Hospital Discharge Survey from 1996 to 2010. SETTING: Adult discharges from a national sample of non-Federal hospitals. PARTICIPANTS/EXPOSURES: Adults admitted and discharged to a PAC facility between 1996 and 2010. Our analysis includes 2.99 million sampled discharges, representative of 386 million discharges nationally. MEASUREMENTS: Patient demographic and hospitalization characteristics, including length of stay (LOS) and diagnoses treated. RESULTS: More than half (50.7%) of all patients discharged to PAC facilities were 80 years old or older in 2010; 40% of hospitalizations in this age group ended with a PAC stay. Decreases in LOS and increases in PAC facility use were consistent across payors and patient demographics. PAC facilities may be substituting for continued inpatient care for patients with pneumonia, hip fracture, and sepsis as these diagnoses demonstrated the clearest trends of decreasing LOS and increasing discharges to PAC facilities. CONCLUSIONS: The rise in discharges to PAC facilities is occurring in all age groups and payors, though the predominant population is the very old Medicare patient, for whom successful rehabilitation may be most unsure. PAC facility care may be increasingly substituted for prolonged hospitalizations for patients with pneumonia, hip fracture, and sepsis.
Assuntos
Hospitalização/estatística & dados numéricos , Hospitais/estatística & dados numéricos , Adolescente , Adulto , Fatores Etários , Idoso , Idoso de 80 Anos ou mais , Feminino , Pesquisas sobre Atenção à Saúde , Humanos , Tempo de Internação/estatística & dados numéricos , Masculino , Pessoa de Meia-Idade , Alta do Paciente/estatística & dados numéricos , Estudos Retrospectivos , Fatores Sexuais , Fatores Socioeconômicos , Estados Unidos , Adulto JovemRESUMO
Discharge from the acute care hospital is increasingly recognized as a time of heightened vulnerability for lapses in safety and quality. The capacity of patients to understand and execute discharge instructions is critical to promote effective self-care. This study explores factors that predict understanding and execution of discharge instructions in a sample of 237 recently discharged older adults. A study nurse conducted a postdischarge home visit to ascertain patient understanding and assess execution of instructions. Health literacy, cognition, and self-efficacy were important predictors of successful understanding and execution of instructions. Neither discharge diagnosis nor complexity of discharge instructions was found to be a significant predictor of these outcomes. Results indicate a need to implement reliable protocols that identify patients at risk for poor understanding and execution of hospital discharge instructions and provide customized approaches to meet them at their respective levels.