Facilities Serving More Hispanic Patients With Dementia Garner Lower Quality Ratings

Improving dementia care may necessitate a focus on improving the quality of care in skilled nursing facilities that disproportionately serve Hispanic residents, according to a study published online in the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association.] 

“As the number of Hispanics with dementia continues to increase,” researchers wrote, “greater use of post-acute care in nursing home settings will be required.”  

The cross-sectional study investigated the quality of skilled nursing facilities that serve higher proportions of Hispanic patients with dementia using 2016 data from Medicare-certified providers.

Among 177,396 beneficiaries with probable dementia, about 20% were admitted to 1615 facilities with a resident population that was more than 15% Hispanic. According to the study, skilled nursing facilities with a higher share of Hispanic residents had a 14% to 15% lower proportion of 4- or 5-star quality ratings compared with facilities with fewer or no Hispanic residents. Their 30-day rehospitalization rate was also 1% higher.  

“Achieving better quality of care for people with dementia,” researchers concluded, “may require efforts to improve the quality of care among facilities with a high concentration of Hispanic residents.” 

—Jolynn Tumolo 

Reference: 

Rivera-Hernandez M, Fabius CD, Fashaw S, et al. Quality of Post-Acute Care in Skilled Nursing Facilities That Disproportionately Serve Hispanics With Dementia [published online ahead of print, 2020 Jul 30]. J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2020;S1525-8610(20)30542-9. doi:10.1016/j.jamda.2020.06.030