Socioeconomic status is a powerful determinant of access to care, quality of care, and health care outcomes in the United States. Current estimates indicate that the population of nursing home residents will increase over this time period despite reductions in the prevalence of disability. The magnitude of this problem is likely to increase over the next two decades as the number of older adults in nursing homes grows due to aging of the baby boom population. 8 – 10 Thus, a lack of health information in this population may both impede the timely care of acutely ill individuals and also lead to the overuse of diagnostic tests and unnecessary hospital admissions. 6, 7 The absence of readily available medical information has been identified by emergency medicine physicians as a common problem and a barrier to providing appropriate and timely care for elderly ED patients. 4 – 7 In particular, the patient’s reason for visit, baseline mental and physical function, and advance directives are commonly not available. 3 Essential patient information for elderly SNF residents is often unavailable to ED providers.

2 Elderly adults who reside in skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) use the ED at particularly high rates, with an estimate of visit rates exceeding one visit per patient per year. 1 Elderly ED patients tend to have more complex illnesses than younger patients, with higher triage scores, longer ED length of stays, higher rates of hospital and intensive care unit admission, and higher rates of return visits. Emergency Department (ED) visits for elderly adults have increased in the past 10 years.

Medicaid.gov nursing home compare