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Hospital-Skilled Nursing Facility Referral Linkage Reduces Readmission Rates Among Medicare Patients Receiving Major Surgery, Andrew J. Schoenfeld, Xuan Zhang, David C. Grabowski, Vincent Mor, Joel S. Weissman, Momotazur Rahman

Research Collection School Of Economics

BACKGROUND:In the health reform era, rehospitalization after discharge may result in financial penalties to hospitals. The effect of increased hospital-skilled nursing facility (SNF) linkage on readmission reduction after surgery has not been explored.METHODS:To determine whether enhanced hospital-SNF linkage, as measured by the proportion of surgical patients referred from a hospital to a particular SNF, would result in reduced 30-day readmission rates for surgical patients, we used national Medicare data (2011-2012) and evaluated patients who underwent 1 of 5 operative procedures (coronary artery bypass grafting [CABG], hip fracture repair, total hip arthroplasty, colectomy, or lumbar spine surgery). Initial evaluation was performed …