SNF visits help hospital reduce LOS, readmissions.

Physicians and nurse practitioners on the University of Michigan Health System's Subacute Service visit patients transferred to skilled nursing facilities after a hospital stay and provide follow-up care. The initiative has reduced the average length of stay for older patients from 10.6 days to eight days and dropped 15-day readmissions from 20% to 17.4%. Patients identified for the program are medically stable but can't safely be discharged to home. In the past, they would have stayed in the hospital for a long time. The subacute staff see patients in the skilled nursing facility within 24 hours, and follow up as necessary, conducting medication reconciliation every week.