6 Los Angeles County Hospitals Landed in the Top 10 for Highest Skilled Nursing Facility Discharge Rate for Renal Failure Last Year out of all U.S. Hospitals
Get Dexur’s Personalized Hospital Specific Presentation on Quality, Safety, Compliance & Education
By: Jeffrey Maser Dec. 14, 2017
A recent Dexur analysis found that Southern California Hospital at Hollywood had the highest SNF discharge rate for renal failure with major complications or comorbidities out of all major U.S. hospitals between January and December of 2016 with a rate just over 70%. Dexur defined major U.S. hospitals as those that accounted for at least 3,500 total Medicare inpatient discharges during the timeframe. These hospitals were then filtered further for only hospitals that accounted for 11 or more discharges to skilled nursing facilities from DRG-682 (Renal Failure with Major Complication or Comorbidity); 818 hospitals met this criteria. Southern California Hospital at Hollywood’s rate was the highest out of all major hospitals analyzed and was the 7th highest out of all U.S. hospitals, regardless of hospital volume.
Across all major U.S. hospitals, the average SNF discharge rate for DRG-682 during the analyzed time period was 28.75%. This is a little less than half of the rate for Southern California Hospital at Hollywood. Conversely, this national average was nearly triple the rate of The Medical Center, Navicent Health in Macon, Georgia, where the SNF discharge rate for DRG-682 was 9.91%, the lowest out of all major U.S. hospitals.
In a recent interview with Dexur analyst Saparja Nag, Dr. John Gore of University of Washington Medical Center explained that patients who are discharged to SNFs or transitional facilities are generally sicker patients who have a tendency to be at a lower baseline of health. Also impacting the patient’s potential discharge to a SNF are the resources available to the specific patient post-discharge. This varies by patient and is relatively out of the hospital’s control. Furthermore, Dr. Tamer Mahrous reminds us in his 2012 article that even when a physician recommends a patient be discharged to a skilled nursing facility, “If a patient wants to go home against the recommendations of their medical team, they have every right to go home” as long as they have the capacity to make the decision or have a surrogate decision maker do so.
When viewing the top 10 major hospitals in terms of highest DRG-682 SNF discharge rate, no one state seems to dominate the pack. However, when all US. hospitals with at least 11 DRG-682 discharges to SNFs are analyzed, regardless of total inpatient discharge volume, six out of the top ten were in California. Due to the vast size and population of California, it is not surprising that California hospitals made up a majority of the top 10 highest volume hospitals for DRG-682. What is significant, however, is the fact that all six hospitals are located in Los Angeles county. Although the cause of these high SNF discharges rates is unknown, it is possible that the health and population demographics of the Los Angeles county population could be contributing to these numbers.
DEXUR PRO MEMBERS GET ACCESS TO:
- DRG-682 Total Inpatient Discharges, SNF Discharges and SNF Discharge Rate for the Major U.S. Hospitals with the 10 Lowest DRG-682 SNF Discharge Rates
- DRG-682 Total Inpatient Discharges, SNF Discharges and SNF Discharge Rate for the U.S. Hospitals (regardless of discharge volume) with the 10 Highest DRG-682 SNF Discharge Rates
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
