LAUSR

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.