Skilled Nursing Facility Network Capacity and Hospital Length of Stay

Is skilled nursing facility (SNF) capacity within hospital-SNF markets associated with hospital length of stay?This cross-sectional study of 3.34 million Medicare fee-for-service hospitalizations in 2018 and 2019 identified 421 hospital-SNF markets using community detection. Within markets, lower nurse staffing levels were associated with longer hospital stays, particularly among beneficiaries dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid.These findings suggest that network-defined hospital-SNF markets provide a reproducible framework for measuring postacute care capacity and may inform strategies to address hospital discharge delays.

Corresponding Author: Rachel A. Prusynski, DPT, PhD, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Washington, 1959 NE Pacific St, Box 356490, Seattle, WA 98195 (rachelp1@uw.edu).

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