Influence of hospital and nursing home quality on hospital readmissions

To determine whether the quality of the hospital and of the nursing home (NH) to which a patient was discharged were related to the likelihood of rehospitalization.

Retrospective cohort study of 1,382,477 individual hospitalizations discharged to 15,356 NHs from 3683 hospitals between 2006 and 2008.

Data come from Medicare claims and enrollment records, Minimum Data Set, Online Survey Certification and Reporting Dataset, Hospital Compare, and the American Hospital Association Database. Cross-classified random effects models were used to test the association of hospital and NH quality measures and the likelihood of 30-day rehospitalization.

Patients discharged from higher-quality hospitals (as indicated by higher scores on their accountability process measures and high nurse staffing levels) and patients who received care in higher-quality NHs (as indicated by high nurse staffing levels and lower deficiency scores) were less likely to be rehospitalized within 30 days.

The passage of the Affordable Care Act changed the accountability of hospitals for patients' outcomes after discharge. This study highlights the joint accountability of hospitals and NHs for rehospitalization of patients.