skilled nursing facility readmissions to hospitals

Improvements in the delivery of care cannot prevent some skilled nursing facility patients from being readmitted to hospitals, a new study has concluded. According to the study, when advanced practice nurses brought best practices to 16 nursing homes participating in a Medicare pilot program, they enjoyed considerable success reducing hospital readmissions but found themselves unable to stop some, including readmissions caused by residents or their families calling ambulances on their own; patients refusing treatment and then demanding hospitalization because of the effects of the denied treatment; and patients in hospice deciding they want surgery. These were among the findings in [...]