To determine whether assigning a dedicated general practitioner () to a nursing home reduces hospitalizations and readmissions.
Data Sources/Study Setting
Secondary data on hospitalizations and deaths by month for the universe of nursing home residents in Denmark from January 2011 through February 2014.
In 2012, Denmark initiated a program in seven nursing homes that volunteered to participate. We used a difference‐in‐differences model to estimate the effect of assigning a dedicated to a nursing home on the likelihood that a nursing home resident will be hospitalized, will experience a preventable hospitalization, and will be readmitted. The unit of observation is a resident‐month.
Data Collection/Extraction Methods
Data were extracted from the Danish public administrative register dataset.
We found that assigning a to a nursing home was associated with a 0.55 [95 percent , 0.08 to 1.02] percentage point reduction in the monthly probability of a preventable hospitalization, which was a 26 percent reduction from the preintervention level of 2.13 percentage points. The associated reduction in the monthly probability of a readmission was 0.68 [95 percent , −0.01 to 1.37] percentage points, which was a 25 percent reduction from the baseline level of 2.68 percentage points. Survey results indicated that the likely mechanism for the effect was more efficient and consistent communication between s and nursing home personnel.
Assigning a dedicated physician in a nursing home can reduce medical spending and improve patients' health.
