There has been a slow but steady trend of facilities closing over the past five years, but the past year of Covid-19 has culminated in a disproportionate number of closures — 114, in fact, according to national data. As the pandemic continues and provider relief funds dwindle, more closures are expected to continue.
As we move toward a home-based care model, care coordination tools are increasingly critical
Because patient discharges continue to trend toward home health rather than SNFs, SNF referral volumes are expected to lag for the foreseeable future – potentially for the long term.
Due to the marked shift to home-based care over the past year, solutions that facilitate enhanced communication and transparency between acute and post-acute providers are vital to successful care coordination initiatives and positive patient outcomes. Whether used to develop a coordinated treatment plan, offer increased visibility into home health care, or schedule follow-up telehealth or in-person appointments, care coordination tools help ensure providers can track and manage patients across the continuum, and support appropriate patient care – regardless of where or how that care is being delivered.
Data reported here is based off of CarePort customer hospitals and may not be representative of the nation at large.
About the author: Tom Martin is the director of post-acute care analytics at CarePort, powered by WellSky. He has led several data analytics teams providing insight to healthcare providers trying to improve quality of care for their post-acute care patients. He holds an M.S. in Resources Economics with a concentration in econometrics from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. As director of post-acute care analytics at CarePort, Tom studies how the ever-changing PAC regulatory and payment landscape is impacting care delivery and how acute and post-acute providers can leverage their data to improve patient care.
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