National Healthcare Quality Report 2005

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Nursing Home and Home Health Care

Importance and Measures

Demographics
Number of nursing home residents (1999)......................................................................	1,600,000⁴⁴
Number of home health patients (2000)..........................................................................	1,460,000⁴⁵
Discharges from nursing homes (1998-1999)..................................................................	2,500,000⁴⁴
Discharges from home health agencies (2000)................................................................	7,800,000⁴⁵

Cost
Total cost of nursing home services (2003).............................................................	=$110.8 billion⁴⁶
Total cost of home health services (2003)......................................................................	$40 billion⁴⁶

Measures

The NHQR tracks 14 measures of nursing home care for both postacute and chronic care residents and 12 measures for home health care that reflect improvement or deterioration during the course of care. Two core report measures in nursing home care and two core report measures in home health care are highlighted in this section:

Use of restraints among chronic care nursing home residents
Presence of pressure ulcers among nursing home residents
Improvement in ambulation in home health episodes
Acute care hospitalization of home health patients

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