A $15 million grant from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will allow more advance practice registered nurses to be in skilled nursing facilities in Missouri. 

The funding, distributed over four years, will task advance practice nurses with reducing avoidable re-hospitalizations among nursing home residents, according to officials at the University of Missouri Sinclair School of Nursing. 

One advanced practice registered nurse will be placed in each of the 16 selected skilled nursing facilities starting in December. The facilities are all in the St. Louis area.

The University of Missouri researchers, led by Marilyn Rantz, Ph.D., RN, said the project would allow them to share insights around rehospitalizations that could reduce healthcare spending and improve patient care.

“The term, ‘ecstatic,’ does not capture my current sentiment,” said Sinclair School of Nursing Dean Judith Fitzgerald Miller, Ph.D., RN, FAAN. 

The advance practice nurses will be a part of an interdisciplinary team that includes a social worker, information technology specialist, and medical director. The team will be using INTERACT II tools, officials said. n