Potentially avoidable hospitalizations of nursing home residents: frequency, causes, and costs: [see editorial comments by Drs. Jean F. Wyman and William R. Hazzard, pp 760-761].

Objectives: To examine the frequency and reasons for potentially avoidable hospitalizations of nursing home (NH) residents.

Design: Medical records were reviewed as a component of a project designed to develop and pilot test clinical practice tools for reducing potentially avoidable hospitalization.

Setting: NHs in Georgia.

Reducing potentially avoidable hospitalizations of nursing home residents: results of a pilot quality improvement project.

Objectives: Hospitalizations expose nursing home (NH) residents to disruptions in care, iatrogenic events and related morbidity, and result in excess health care costs. Research has shown that a substantial proportion of these hospitalizations may be avoidable and that reducing such hospitalizations could save Medicare dollars that could be re-invested in improving the quality of care in US NHs. The objective of this project was to pilot test tools and strategies designed to assist NH professionals in reducing potentially avoidable hospitalizations.