Post-acute care utilization is projected to increase 31% over the next decade, though that growth is no longer directly tied to hospital discharges, according to an April 2 report from Vizient and Kaufman Hall.
Researchers from the healthcare consulting and management company used data from the Vizient Clinical Database and CMS’ Medicare fee-for-service claims to analyze inpatient discharge patterns and post-acute care utilization trends.
Here are five notes from the report:
- Only 5% of post-acute care encounters are preceded by an inpatient hospitalization within 30 days.
- About two-thirds of inpatient discharges are sent home with self-care instructions, 14% are discharged to home-based post-acute care and 12% are discharged to facility-based post-acute care.
- About 84% of post-acute care patients are 65 and older, and nearly 85% of post-acute care patients are covered by Medicare.
- The average length of stay among patients discharged to post-acute care after a hospital stay is 8.9 days, compared to 3.7 days among patients discharged to home or self-care.
- Readmission rates followed a similar trend, with 20% of patients discharged to post-acute care after a hospital stay experiencing readmission, compared to 8.8% of patients discharged to home or self-care.
Read the full report here.
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