Study: Discharging older, post-surgical patients to nursing home worsens outcomes

Discharging older adults to a skilled nursing facility or other type of post-acute care facility after surgery is associated with worse outcomes, a study found. Published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons, the study found discharge to a post-acute care setting could be a valuable benchmark to help hospitals evaluate how well they are serving older adult surgical patients. Hospitals can evaluate their performance in how often they discharge older adults to post-acute care facilities compared with their peers and then focus on employing interventions to prevent discharge to those facilities, the authors conclude. Interventions could include screening patients at highest risk for poor outcomes and then focusing on pre-habilitation or more targeted physical therapy during the perioperative period. (Newswise news release, 8/25/25)