Foreword to “Nursing Home Performance: Organizational and Environmental Factors”

This special collection explores the organizational and environmental factors influencing nursing home performance. The papers in this special collection fall into 3 broad themes. The first theme addresses issues related to nursing home quality measures and public reporting. The second group of papers examines how organizational resources and the environment may influence nursing home performance. The third group of papers examines the relationships among management, strategy, and performance. Findings from this special collection can inform managers and policy makers on best practices and policies that can enhance organizational performance and ultimately ensure access to long-term care

Hospitals\u27 Use of Hospitalists: Implications for Financial Performance

Background: Hospitalists, or physicians specializing in hospital-based practice, have grown significantly since they were first introduced in the United States in the mid-1990s. Prior studies on the impact of hospitalists have focused on costs and length of stay. However, there is dearth of research exploring the relationship between hospitals\u27 use of hospitalists and organizational performance. Purpose: Using a national longitudinal sample of acute care hospitals operating in the United States between 2007 and 2014, this study explores the impact of hospitalists staffing intensity on hospitals\u27 financial performance. Methodology: Data sources for this study included the American Hospital Association Annual Survey, the Area Health Resources File, and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services\u27 costs reports and Case Mix Index files. Data were analyzed using a panel design with facility and year fixed effects regression. Results: Results showed that hospitals that switched from not using hospitalists to using a high hospitalist staffing intensity had both increased patient revenues and higher operating costs per adjusted patient day. However, the higher operating costs from high hospitalist staffing intensity were offset by increased patient revenues, resulting in a marginally significant increase in operating profitability (p \u3c .1). Practice Implications: These findings suggest that the rise in the use of hospitalists may be fueled by financial incentives such as increased revenues and profitability in addition to other drivers of adoption

The Role of Assisted Living Capacity on Nursing Home Financial Performance

The rapid growth of the assisted living industry has coincided with decreased levels of nursing home occupancy and financial performance. The purpose of this article is to examine the relationships among assisted living capacity, nursing home occupancy, and nursing home financial performance. In addition, we explore whether the relationship between assisted living capacity and nursing home financial performance is mediated by nursing home occupancy. This research utilized publicly available secondary data, for the state of Florida from 2003 through 2015. General descriptive statistics were used to assess the relationships among financial performance, assisted living capacity, and occupancy. To explore the relationships among financial performance, assisted living capacity and occupancy, and test potential mediation of occupancy, we followed Baron and Kenny’s approach and estimated 3 models examining the relationships between (1) assisted living capacity and nursing home financial performance, (2) assisted living capacity and nursing home occupancy, and (3) nursing home occupancy and financial performance after assisted living capacity is included in the model. We used generalized estimating equations, to adjust for repeated measures and to model the above relationships. Year fixed effects control for time trend. The independent variable, assisted living beds, was lagged for 1 year to account for the potential influence on financial performance. The final analytic sample consisted of 7688 nursing home-year observations from 657 unique nursing homes. Our findings suggest that assisted living capacity does have a negative impact on nursing homes’ financial performance. Even though, assisted living capacity seems not to significantly decrease nursing home occupancy. The relationship between assisted living capacity and financial performance was not mediated through occupancy. These findings suggest that assisted living communities may not be able to significantly reduce nursing home occupancy; however, the presence of assisted living communities may create additional financial/competitive pressures that result in decreased nursing home financial performance