The number of nursing home patients a physician or nurse practitioner sees does not significantly affect patient outcome measures, such as readmissions and emergency department visits, a Philadelphia-based University of Pennsylvania study found.
The study, published Aug. 15 in JAMA Network, used Medicare Parts A and B claims from 77,723 clinicians and the nursing home minimum dataset from 2012 to 2019. The data included older adults admitted to a nursing home who were seen by a physician or advanced practitioner. Researchers analyzed the number of patients these clinicians treated and its effect on patient outcomes.
More than half of clinicians treat fewer than 10 patients a year. The study found that patients of clinicians with smaller patient volume did not experience different outcomes compared to those with high patient volumes. This held true for rehospitalizations, successful discharge to community, ED visits and functional improvement at discharge from the nursing home.
