Susan Mitchell, MD, from Harvard Medical School-affiliated Hebrew SeniorLife Institute for Aging Research, pulled data from the Minimum Data Set assessments completed quarterly on all nursing home residents in the U.S., including 71,251 residents with advanced dementia and dependence for eating.
The proportion of residents who received feeding tubes over the next 12 months declined from 12 percent in 2000 to 6 percent in 2014. However, black residents would more likely to have a feeding tube in 2000 and 2014 than white residents.
“To ensure the message from existing evidence and expert recommendations is disseminated and disparities are reduced, fiscal and regulatory policies are needed that discourage tube feeding and promote a palliative approach to feeding problems in patients with advanced dementia,” the study concludes.
More articles on quality:
Nearly 20% of hospitalized patients are released with unstable vital signs
Ochsner hospital transfers 40 critically ill patients due to massive floods
Hospitals disposing of organs, refusing transplants to maintain federal performance ratings
