Adding nursing facility beds: impact on hospital nonacute care

The study evaluated the impact of admitting 235 nonacute patients who had been backed up in hospitals to new nursing facility beds in the metropolitan area of Syracuse, New York, during a 12-month period. The data indicated that these admissions reduced the hospital nonacute census by 53 percent and produced substantial declines in numbers of nonacute patients with postacute stays longer than one month and with Medicaid as principal payer. Numbers of patients waiting for Medicaid eligibility were not affected by admissions to the new beds. The data also indicated that substantial numbers of new admissions were required to generate these changes.