Critical Access Hospital Swing Bed Programs Outperform Skilled Nursing Facilities on Quality Performance According to Report by Stroudwater Associates

PORTLAND, Maine - Aug. 1, 2024 - PRLog -- Stroudwater Associates, the nation's leading source for operational, financial, quality, and clinical strategy for rural and community healthcare, has released Critical Access Hospital Swing Bed Programs Outperform Skilled Nursing Facilities on Quality Performance. This report details how Critical Access Hospital (CAH) swing bed programs outperform Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNFs) on three out of five metrics and can use quality data to enhance their role as providers of high-quality, community-centered care.

The report shares the results of quality data collected through Stroudwater's Swing Bed Quality Reporting Program from 2020 through 2023. The program was introduced in 2018 to standardize reporting and develop industry-wide swing-bed quality benchmarks, and it now has five years of data from approximately 200 CAHs in 29 states. As the only dedicated quality measurement solution for CAH swing-bed programs, it serves as the national platform for collecting data and benchmarking swing-bed outcome measures.

"For many years, we believed Critical Access Hospital swing bed programs outperformed Skilled Nursing Facilities in metrics like return to acute, discharges to communities, and more, but we lacked the sufficient data to support that belief," said Stroudwater Associates' Principal Clinical and Quality Consultant, Lindsay Corcoran, MHA. "Our latest report reveals that rural swing-bed programs are outperforming skilled nursing facilities on Return to Acute from Swing Bed, Return to Acute Post 30-Day Discharge, and Discharge to Community, and that there is still room for improvement on Risk-adjusted Performance Improvement in Mobility and Risk-adjusted Performance Improvement in Self Care."

Since CAHs are not required to submit their quality data to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), CAHs lack standardized data to compare swing-bed outcomes to rural Prospective Payment System (PPS) hospitals. Without clear benchmarks, CAHs cannot use data to demonstrate the quality of care for swing-bed patients, which diminishes CAH's participation in alternative payment models for post-acute care.

"Many CAHs depend on the revenue derived from swing bed Medicare reimbursements to sustain daily operations," emphasized Stroudwater Associates' Managing Director, Jeff Sommer, MPP. "Capturing, reporting, and benchmarking the data is a significant step toward increasing utilization in rural swing bed programs. CAHs need to use this data to market the success of their program to potential patients or referring partners."

Key results from the report include:

• 73.6% of CAH swing bed patients were discharged to their community, significantly exceeding SNFs' rate of 49.7%, during the period 10/1/2020 through 9/30/2022.
• From 7/1/2022 through 6/30/2023, 8% of CAH swing bed patients experienced unplanned returns to acute care, compared to SNFs' 11.4%.
• 9.2% of CAH swing bed patients had returned to acute care within 30 days post-discharge from 10/1/2020 through 9/30/2022, whereas SNFs' rate stood at 10.5% for the same period.

To download the full report, please click here.

About Stroudwater Associates

Founded in 1985, Stroudwater Associates is a leading national healthcare consulting firm with an all-encompassing devotion to rural healthcare nationwide. With corporate offices in Portland, Maine, and Nashville, Tennessee, and experience working in all 50 states, we focus on strategic, operational, clinical, quality, and financial areas where our perspective offers the highest value for rural hospitals, community hospitals, healthcare systems, and large physician groups. Our consulting teams offer deep expertise and broad experience in strategic, financial, clinical, and operational areas.