Evaluating the Quality of Patient Decision-Making Regarding Post-Acute Care

Despite a national focus on post-acute care brought about by recent payment reforms, relatively little is known about how hospitalized older adults and their caregivers decide whether to go to a skilled nursing facility (SNF) after hospitalization.

We sought to understand to what extent hospitalized older adults and their caregivers are empowered to make a high-quality decision about utilizing an SNF for post-acute care and what contextual or process elements led to satisfaction with the outcome of their decision once in SNF.

Qualitative inquiry using the Ottawa Decision Support Framework (ODSF), a conceptual framework that describes key components of high-quality decision-making.

Thirty-two previously community-dwelling older adults (≥ 65 years old) and 22 caregivers interviewed at three different hospitals and three skilled nursing facilities.

We used key components of the ODSF to identify elements of context and process that affected decision-making and to what extent the outcome was characteristic of a high-quality decision: informed, values based, and not associated with regret or blame.

The most important contextual themes were the presence of active medical conditions in the hospital that made decision-making difficult, prior experiences with hospital readmission or SNF, relative level of caregiver support, and pressure to make a decision quickly for which participants felt unprepared. Patients described playing a passive role in the decision-making process and largely relying on recommendations from the medical team. Patients commonly expressed resignation and a perceived lack of choice or autonomy, leading to dissatisfaction with the outcome.

Understanding and intervening to improve the quality of decision-making regarding post-acute care supports is essential for improving outcomes of hospitalized older adults. Our results suggest that simply providing information is not sufficient; rather, incorporating key contextual factors and improving the decision-making process for both patients and clinicians are also essential.