Characterizing Older Medicare Beneficiaries in LTACHs

Older adult (OA) Medicare beneficiaries admitted to long-term acute care hospitals (LTACHs) with traumatic brain injury often had multimorbidities and were rarely discharged home afterward, according to a Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation research letter.

To characterize this patient population, researchers conducted a retrospective cohort study with data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Medicare Enrollment and Provider Analysis and Review from 2011 to 2016.

The study included 15,148 OAs who were an average of 77.1 years old and predominantly White males. Researchers found that 94.6% had two or more multimorbidities present during their hospitalization and an average length of stay of 19.4 days. Patients required acute mechanical ventilation at a rate of 56.6% and tracheostomy procedures at 40%.

Patients were primarily discharged to skilled nursing facilities (41.3%), with only 4.1% discharged home after their LTACH stay. Additionally, the number of LTACH facilities and proportion of admissions were greatest in Southern and Midwestern states.

“Our findings among older adult Medicare beneficiaries suggest this population is highly medically complex and are seldom discharged home after their LTACH stay,” authors wrote. “More research is warranted to understand long-term functional outcomes among this population.”

Reference:
Kumar RG, Zhang W, Evans E, Dams-O’Connor K, Thomas KS. Research letter: Characterization of older adults hospitalized with traumatic brain injury admitted to long-term acute care hospitals [published online ahead of print March 22, 2021]. J Head Trauma Rehabil. doi: 10.1097/HTR.0000000000000685