Ryskina, Polsky, & Werner
Abstract
Nursing home care is common, costly, and variable in quality. For instance, between September 2009 and August 2010, 23% of the 1.5 million hospital discharges to post–acute care in nursing homes resulted in rehospitalization or death within 30 days, with variation across facilities. One approach adopted by hospitals to improve care over the past decade was to concentrate it among physicians who specialize in treating hospitalized patients (hospitalists). Our goal was to determine whether nursing homes are adopting this strategy by measuring the prevalence of “nursing home specialists” between 2012 and 2015.