Discretionary hospitalization of nursing home residents with and without Alzheimer's disease: a multilevel analysis.
This study analyzes facility variations in hospital admission rates of nursing home (NH) residents with and without Alzheimer's disease (AD) or related dementia with the aim of better understanding how facility-level contextual factors differentially affect hospitalization risks.


METHODS
The sample population consists of 19,217 and 18,399 Medicaid residents with and without AD, respectively, from 546 NHs in Massachusetts between 1991 and 1993. Hospital use is measured as annual nonpsychiatric discretionary hospital admissions to short-term general hospitals. Multilevel estimation methods are used to obtain facility and market area parameter estimates.


RESULTS
There was greater interfacility variation in discretionary hospital admission rates of AD residents than residents without AD, particularly among more vulnerable subgroups of AD residents.


CONCLUSIONS
The findings underscore the importance of licensed nursing personnel in reducing discretionary hospitalizations among NH residents with AD.
Porell
Frank W
FW
Gerontology Center, University of Massachusetts at Boston, Boston, MA 02125-3393 USA.
Carter
Mary
M
D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000451:nursing; D003710:Demography; D003953:Diagnosis-Related Groups; D019981:Health Care Sector; D006304:Health Status; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D009729:Nursing; D009735:Nursing Homes; D010343:Patient Admission / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010561:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling; D012044:Regression Analysis; D000078329:Workforce