A masked doctor speaks with two nursing home residents
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Nursing home operators have not only admitted an increasingly frail number of patients, they’ve also hired a correspondingly larger pool of clinicians to treat them, according to a decade-long research effort.

A University of Texas team found that the ratio of full-time clinicians — including physicians, nurse practitioners and physical assistants — at nursing homes increased from 26% to 45% between 2008 and 2017. The largest increase was among nurse practitioners, which jumped 125% — from 1,986 to 4,479 during the study period.

The findings used a 20% national sample from Medicare data on long-term care residents. 

“Since patients of full-time providers have fewer ER visits and hospitalizations, it is less disruptive for nursing homes, as is having a provider available to respond to questions from the nursing home staff,” lead study author James S. Goodwin, M.D., told McKnight’s on Wednesday. 

“This has led some nursing homes to hire full time NPs and to pay more for medical directors that are more present in the facility. In addition, nursing home residents and their families also prefer providers who are available,” he added. 

The growing trend appears to be here to stay, study authors concluded. They said that providers do gain several advantages by hiring full-time clinicians, including increased efficiency, and they “should provide better coverage to evaluate and intervene early after changes in clinical status.”

Full findings were published in the December edition of the Journal of Post Acute Long-Term Care Medicine. For additional coverage, check out the McKnight’s Clinical Daily.