Are You Really Better Off in a Nursing Home than at Home? SNF Residents with Pre-existing Healthcare Associated Infections Less Likely to be Readmitted to Hospital

According to McKnight's Long-term Care News, "skilled nursing operators have a new tool in their marketing kits to portray themselves as worthy providers of good clinical care."  According to McKnight's: 

Residents with pre-existing healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are less likely to be readmitted to a hospital when discharged to a skilled nursing facility as opposed to a home-health setting, according to University of Michigan researchers.

The study found that SNF residents with HAIs were 38% less likely of being readmitted when compared to patients who returned home or received home health care services. The most common reasons for all readmissions included Clostridioides difficile and urinary tract infections.  

Investigators used national hospital discharge data from more than 702,000 Medicare beneficiaries age 65 and older. About 353,000 of those seniors, or 50%, were discharged to a SNF. About 179,400 (26%) were discharged to home health care and about 169,800 (24%) were sent home. 

The study was published  in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. 

So, if you contract a "healthcare-associated infection," an infection you would not have contracted at home, this study suggests you are more likely to have a positive health outcome if you go to another healthcare institution, a skilled nursing home, rather than to your home. 

The study based positive health outcome upon hospitals readmissions, but there does not appear to be in the study a control to determine whether readmissions did not occur because they are penalized by Medicare regulations.  Bottom line, though, is that there is now a study which stands squarely for the proposition that you should accept referral to a SNF from a healthcare institution/hospital from which you may have contracted an infection rather than transfer to your home. 

Hopefully the industry wields responsibly the shiny new tool in their marketing kits to portray themselves as worthy providers of good clinical care.  One would hope that would include full disclosure of the risks of institutional care:

• One-Third of Nursing Home Residents Injured or Killed In Treatment;
• New Cont
• Institutional Care: America's Most Vulnerable Seniors Raped and Sexually Abused;
• COPD Patients Discharged to a Skilled Nursing Have Two Times the Risk of Death Within Year Compared to Those Who Go Home;
• Hapatitis Infection Risk in Nursing Homes Up 50%; Infection Risk Across the Board Increases;
• Resident's Death Caused By Nursing Home Failing to Follow Advanced Directives Requesting CPR;
• Nursing Home Involvement in Patient's Death Object Lesson on Aging-in-Place Planning;
• Nursing Home Worker Faces Homicide Charges in Violent Death of Resident;
• Paramedics Often Obstructed, Provided Insufficient Information On Nursing Home Calls;
• Non-Profit Long-Term Care Safer than For-Profit;
• Habits Are Hard to Break: Nursing Homes Habitually Violate Federal Standards Year After Year;
• CDC Reports That SNF Workers Most Likely Among Health Care Workers to Forego Recommended Vaccinations;
• Don't Let Institutions Plan for You: Medicaid-Eligible Nursing Home Resident Stuck With Costs of Private-Pay Room;
• Many Skilled Care Providers Still Unaware of New Medicare Rules Permitting Chronic Condition Care;
• Ohio Ranks Poorly on Long-Term Care Services Scorecard;
• Hospice Costs Medicare Less Notwithstanding that Hospice Patients Live Longer.