Discharge and duration of stay experience in nursing homes.

MOST of the information currently available about nursing home patients has been obtained by sample or enumeration studies of the patients found in one or more homes as of a given date. Such studies have ascertained the demographic characteristics of the nursing home patient-population and have obtained information about the physicial condition of the patients, including ambulatory status, types and extent of infirmity and diagnosis, and their need for specific types of nursing and personal services. Because the studies have been cross-sectional in nature rather than longitudinal, they have not provided information about discharge and death in the nursing home patient-population nor about the duration of patient stay up to the point of discharge or death. Yet information about discharge and death rates and analysis of factors to which they are related can improve our capacity to estimate the need for nursing home beds. It can also shed light on the degree to which bed needs may be affected by changes in such parameters as (1) the eligibility requirements which determine the number of public assistance patients in nursing homes, and (2) the closeness of nursing home-hospital relationships which influences the number of patients admitted into nursing homes from general hospitals. This paper presents the data obtained about discharge, death and duration of stay that were obtained in a longitudinal study and the results of the analysis of some of the factors to which these are related.