Skilled Nursing Facility Rehabilitation Intensity and Successful Discharge in Persons with Dementia

Objectives

Skilled therapies (STs), including audiology, speech-language therapy, occupational therapy, and physical therapy, can address functional deficits in dementia. This study aims to quantify the association between ST and successful discharge after heart failure (HF) hospitalization in persons living with dementia.

Design

Retrospective cohort study.

Setting and Participants

We included veterans with dementia (VwD) hospitalized for HF in Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers and then admitted to non-VA skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) from January 2011 to June 2019.

Methods

Follow-up continued 120 days after SNF admission. We measured ST hours per week using MDS admission assessments. We defined successful discharge as SNF discharge occurring within 90 days of SNF admission with MDS discharge status not hospital or institutional setting, and 30 days’ survival after discharge without Medicare or VA-paid rehospitalization or reinstitutionalization. We estimated relative risk using multiple variable regression to adjust for measured sources of confounding.

Results

Our final sample included 8255 VwD. The mean (SD) age was 80 (10) years, and 8074 (98%) were male. Successful discharge occurred in 2776 (34%) of the sample. The median (IQR) weekly hours of ST was 10.4 (7.1–12.1). Sextile 1 received less than 5.2 hours per week of ST. The adjusted relative risk (95% CI) for sextiles 2–6 compared with sextile 1 were, respectively, 2.20 (1.85–2.62), 2.48 (2.09–2.94), 2.52 (2.12–2.99), 2.62 (2.21–3.11), and 2.69 (2.27–3.19).

Discussion

During SNF care after HF hospitalization, 5.3 or more hours of STs per week was associated with a higher rate of successful discharge, in a roughly dose-dependent fashion, up to a 170% increase in the highest sextile of ST hours.

Conclusions and Implications

Higher ST hours are associated with successful discharge from SNF after HF hospitalization.