http://goo.gl/tu9P8b
The sweeping new analysis shows that the most experienced skilled nursing facilities were more than twice as likely as the least experienced to successfully discharge patients back to the community within 30 days of breaking a hip. The results, led by Brown University researchers, appear in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
"While volume is not a direct measure of post-acute care quality, it appears that it is a good proxy that captures hard-to-measure aspects of quality, like the expertise of the staff, that are clearly associated with an outcome that patients care about: returning home soon and in a condition that allows them to remain at home without further institutionalization in a hospital or a nursing home," said lead author Pedro Gozalo, associate professor (research) of health services, policy and practice in the Brown University School of Public Health.