Potentially avoidable hospitalisations of German nursing home patients? A cross-sectional study on utilisation patterns and potential consequences for healthcare.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

Demand for nursing home (NH) care is soaring due to gains in life expectancy and people living longer with chronic illness and disability. This is dovetailing with workforce shortages across the healthcare profession. Access to timely and appropriate medical care for NH residents is becoming increasingly challenging and can result in potentially avoidable hospitalisations (PAHs). In light of these factors, we analysed PAHs comparing NH patients with non-NH patients.

Design

Cross-sectional study with claims data from 2015 supplied by a large German health insurance company within the federal state of Baden-Wuerttemberg.

Setting

One-year observation of hospitalisation patterns for NH and non-NH patients.

Participants

3 872 245 of the 10.5million inhabi

SUBMITTER: Leutgeb R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6347959 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature