Avoiding Hospitalizations From Nursing Homes for Potentially Burdensome Care

Nursing home residents are often hospitalized for care that has the potential to be burdensome, in the sense that the risks outweigh the expected benefits.1 These hospitalizations offer little hope of improving quality of life or changing the course of illness and usually involve residents close to death who are vulnerable to iatrogenic harms. Certain facilities are more successful than others at preventing potentially burdensome hospitalizations. The reasons for their success, however, are poorly understood. We sought to explore the causes of these transfers and identify practices that help facilities avoid them.