NURSING HOMES
Posted by admin on November 18th, 2009Increased demographic demand indicates that more beds are needed, especially in certain geographic areas. The probability of nursing home placement sometime within a person’s lifetime is closely related to age; for those age 65 to 74, the probability is 17%, but for those > 85, it is 60%. Projections indicate that 43% of people who turned 65 in 1990 will spend some time in a nursing home before they die, and more than 50% of those admitted will spend at least a year.
Prospective payment systems, such as those based on diagnosis re¬lated groups (DRGs), are often responsible for expedited discharges from hospitals to nursing homes of marginally stable or extremely deconditioned patients. Such patients need considerable amounts of skilled nursing and other therapies to achieve their rehabilitative poten¬tial. They will probably be in the nursing home for short stays (< 3 mo) rather than permanently. Medical practitioners must ensure that facili¬ties have the level of staffing and types of personnel necessary to meet the needs of these sick patients.
