Quality improvements seen for SNFs
But continued improvement threatened by the current delivery care model
A new report examining the state of the skilled nursing industry finds that there have been steady quality improvements since 2003 but more can be done.
Analytics firm PointRight, working for the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care, found that skilled nursing facilities had short- and long-stay quality measure improvements but saw declines in long-stay incontinence and flu immunizations measures.
The analysis also found that the 30-day rehospitalization rate for post-acute skilled nursing patients significantly declined and patient and employee satisfaction, while not skyrocketing, is up.
The report overall, said Alan Rosenbloom, president of the AQNHC, is good news for the skilled nursing industry.
“It shows some kind of steady state with no real fall back, which I think is really a very, very good accomplishment,” he said. “Having said that, it obviously showed that there is room for improvement whether it be on the quality side or the satisfaction side. We’re pleased with the outcomes there, but certainly there’s a lot more to be done.”
Rosenbloom said that policy changes that the government has made has prompted the market to “move the needle” on quality improvements but that the industry may reach a tipping point soon if Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement cuts continue to be the government’s way of controlling costs.
“… at some point you have to reach a tipping point and the more that we assume we can take out of the nursing facility sector, the closer we’re going to get to that,” he said.
Rosenbloom and AQNHC are closely watching efforts to revamp the post-acute delivery system in the hopes that the inevitable changes to the system will create a potential future that is viable, if not for every individual provider, at least for every type of provider, he said.
[See also: Nursing home alliance offers recipe for post-acute system reform.]
“We’re going to see a lot of restructuring of healthcare …,” he said. “I don’t think that everybody is going to be a survivor,” but “wise policy choices,” some of which are on the table right now, such as tying reimbursement to the care and service needs of patients rather than to facility location, is the linchpin, he said, to restructuring the delivery system for the benefit of all the stakeholders.
