On its Nursing Home Compare website, the Federal government has added a skilled nursing facility (SNF) historical track record of 30-day hospital readmissions in its ratings of care quality. A statistical analysis backs the idea that readmission history is a valid quality measure. Though the measure may seem intuitive, says lead author Momotazur Rahman, assistant professor in the School of Public Health at Brown University, Providence, R.I., its significance could have been diluted by confounding factors. A SNF can have a low hospital readmission rate for either of two competing reasons: it treats healthier patients or it provides better quality of care.
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