Unfortunately, it is often the case that nursing home residents are sent to a hospital when it is not necessarily needed. About one third of nursing home residents are sent to a hospital at least once each year. The numbers should be decreasing because the reasons for hospitalization can sometimes simply be solved within the nursing home.
The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently announced that it is going to continue to push for the initiative to reduce nursing home hospitalizations that can easily be avoided.
The first thing to focus on is training of nursing home staff so that residents are not sent to a hospital for something as simple as a low-grade fever. Another common problem that needs to be resolved is that the nursing home should be equipped with the proper tools and resources to deal with medical problems.
In the past year, the number of hospitalizations has decreased thanks to this initiative. Hopefully the numbers will continue to decrease as time goes on.