Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte had the Lowest SNF Discharge Rate in North Carolina for Major Small and Large Bowel Procedures as the Only Major Facility in the State with a Rate Under 20%
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By: Saparja Nag Feb. 23, 2018
Dexur analysts conducted a study on major North Carolina hospitals that performed major small and large bowel procedures for Medicare inpatients and determined that Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte was the only hospital that had a skilled nursing facility (SNF) discharge rate below 20%. Following Carolinas Medical Center was Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center of Winston-Salem, which had a SNF discharge rate of 21.43% and then the 3rd ranking Greenville’s Vidant Medical Center with a SNF discharge rate of 22.01%. WakeMed Raleigh saw 22.40% of their Medicare patients with this procedure discharged to SNFs to rank 4th, while Cape Fear Valley Medical Center in Fayetteville rounded out the top five with a SNF discharge rate of 23.12%. Patients may be discharged to SNFs if they do not have a caretaker at home to assist them during post-operative recovery or if they require more intensive medical care.
In order to be included in this analysis, hospitals had to have at least 3,500 total Medicare inpatient discharges and 11 DRG-329 discharges between the study’s time period, January 2013 and December 2016. DRG-329 is one of nine procedures within the colorectal category and is defined as major small and large bowel procedures with major complication or comorbidity. Other DRGs within this condition include minor small and large bowel procedures and rectal resections with varying degrees of complication or comorbidity. For this analysis of DRG-329 SNF discharge rates, 26 hospitals in North Carolina met the criteria. Of these 26, 15 facilities had SNF discharge rates below the national average rate of 28.87% and the state rate of 28.20%.
In terms of discharge volume, these five hospitals varied greatly. Vidant Medical Center had the highest discharge volume of all major North Carolina hospitals with 318 DRG-329 discharges. Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center ranked 3rd with 238 discharges for the DRG. The top ranked hospital for lowest SNF discharge rate, Carolina’s Medical Center, was ranked 7th by DRG-329 discharge volume at 193 procedures. Cape Fear Valley Medical Center had 173 discharges ranking it 9th, while WakeMed Raleigh saw 125 discharges. Of these five hospitals, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center had the lowest average length of stay (LOS) for DRG-329 at 13.9 days, placing it 12th in the rankings for lowest average LOS. This was about equal to both the national and state average LOS of DRG-329 Medicare inpatients for the same period, which were 13.87 and 13.95 days, respectively.
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