Selecting post-acute care settings after abdominal surgery: Are we getting it right?

BACKGROUND: We investigated whether variation in post-acute care (PAC) services could be explained by surgeons discharging clinically similar patients to different PAC destinations, including home health (HH), skilled nursing facilities (SNF), and inpatient rehabilitation (IR).

METHODS: We studied patients having colectomy, pancreatectomy or hepatectomy in the 2008-2011 Nationwide Inpatient Sample. We used propensity matching to determine: 1. Proportion of patients discharged to SNF/IR who could be matched to clinically similar patients discharged with HH. 2. Potential cost savings from greater use of HH.

RESULTS: 30,843 patients were discharged with HH and 23,172 to SNF or IR. 14,163 (61%) SNF/IR patients could be matched to similar patients discharged with HH. Potential cost savings from increasing use of HH as an alternative to SNF/IR ranged from $2.5-$438 million annually.

CONCLUSIONS: There is considerable potential for reducing variation in PAC use and costs by better understanding how surgeons make decisions about PAC placement.