WEDNESDAY, Oct. 15, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Skilled nursing facility (SNF) performance measures are not consistently associated with the risk of readmission or death within 30 days for Medicare beneficiaries receiving postacute care at a SNF, according to a study published in the Oct. 15 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Mark D. Neuman, M.D., from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and colleagues used national Medicare data on fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries discharged to a SNF after an acute care hospitalization. They examined the correlation between SNF performance on publicly available metrics and the risk of readmission or death 30 days after discharge to a SNF.
The researchers found that 23.3 percent of patients discharged were readmitted or died within 30 days; 4.7 percent died within 30 days and 21.0 percent were readmitted. At SNFs with better staffing ratings and better facility inspection ratings, the unadjusted risk of readmission or death was lower. These associations were attenuated after adjustment for patient factors, SNF facility factors, and the discharging hospital; small differences were observed in the adjusted risk of readmission or death according to SNF facility inspection ratings. Clinically meaningful differences in the adjusted risk of readmission or death were not predicted by other measures.
"Among fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries discharged to a SNF after an acute care hospitalization, available performance measures were not consistently associated with differences in the adjusted risk of readmission or death," the authors write.
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