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Nursing Homes
Nursing homes are licensed residential facilities with professional staff that provide continuous nursing care and health-related services for individuals who do not require hospitalization but cannot be cared for at home. These facilities provide 24-hour care for adults 18 years of age or older who are not in the acute phase of illness but who have significant functional deficiencies. Functional deficiencies are generally measured by individuals' ability to perform basic activities of daily living (ADLs), such as the ability to independently dress, eat, bathe, get around, and use the toilet themselves. Individuals may need nursing home care for a short period of time, such as for rehabilitation or recovery after an injury or illness. Other individuals may require long-term or permanent care for chronic or progressive physical or mental illness or infirmity.
Types
Nursing homes provide different levels of care designed to meet the wide range of needs of individuals. They may specialize in short-term or acute nursing care, intermediate care, or long-term, custodial nursing care. Many of the nation's nursing homes provide more than one level of care.
Skilled-Nursing Facilities
Skilled-nursing facilities (SNFs) provide relatively short-term nursing and rehabilitative care. Skilled care is generally provided to assist patients during recovery following hospitalization for acute medical conditions. These facilities are state-licensed, and registered nurses (RNs), licensed practical nurses (LPNs), and certified nurse aids (CNAs) provide care. The services of other healthcare professionals such as therapists, social workers, and dietitians are also available. Hospitals often have arrangements with skilled-nursing facilities to provide follow-up care for patients who no longer need acute hospital services. Skilled-nursing facilities provide skilled care and rehabilitation until the patient is able to return home or requires longer-term placement.
Intermediate-Care Facilities
Intermediate-care facilities provide care for individuals who are recovering from acute medical conditions but do not need continuous care or daily therapeutic services. Intermediate care is provided by skilled professionals such as RNs, LPNs, therapists, and other health professionals under the supervision of a physician.
Custodial-Care Facilities
Custodial-care facilities provide assistance to patients in activities of daily living, such as bathing, dressing, eating, and toileting. Individuals who are recovering from a disabling injury or illness may temporarily need custodial care. For other individuals who are losing their ability to function independently due to chronic or progressive disease or frailty due to advanced age, custodial care may be a long-term need. For some, ongoing professional nursing and other services may be required along with custodial care. If custodial-care residents become ill or injured, they may spend a period of time in skilled care and then return to custodial care.
Many nursing homes also provide specialized services such as hospice and respite care. Hospice care offers supportive services for terminally ill patients and their families. Nursing homes may also provide respite care for individuals who are being cared for at home to allow a family caregiver relief for short periods of time. Some nursing homes have specially equipped units for persons who are ventilator-dependent, have Alzheimer's disease, or have spinal cord injuries.
Services Provided
Nursing homes provide a wide range of services, including medical-care services; nursing-care services; other professional healthcare services; personal-care services; spiritual, social, and recreational services; and residential-care services.
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- Access to Care
- Access to Healthcare
- Access, Models of
- Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs)
- Cultural Competency
- Direct-to-Consumer Advertising (DTCA)
- E-Health
- E-Prescribing
- Ethnic and Racial Barriers to Healthcare
- Geographic Barriers to Healthcare
- Health Communication
- Health Literacy
- Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs)
- Healthcare Web Sites
- Hospital Closures
- Inner-City Healthcare
- Medical Travel
- National Health Service Corps (NHSC)
- Patient Dumping
- Patient Transfers
- Rural Health
- Safety Net
- Telemedicine
- Transportation
- Accreditation, Associations, Foundations, and Research Organizations
- Accreditation
- Associations
- AARP
- AcademyHealth
- America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP)
- American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP)
- American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)
- American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN)
- American Association of Preferred Provider Organizations (AAPPO)
- American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE)
- American Health Care Association (AHCA)
- American Health Planning Association (AHPA)
- American Hospital Association (AHA)
- American Medical Association (AMA)
- American Nurses Association (ANA)
- American Osteopathic Association (AOA)
- American Public Health Association (APHA)
- American Society of Health Economics (ASHE)
- Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC)
- Association of University Programs in Health Administration (AUPHA)
- Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA)
- Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI)
- International Health Economics Association (IHEA)
- National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI)
- National Association of Health Data Organizations (NAHDO)
- National Association of State Medicaid Directors (NASMD)
- National Center for Assisted Living (NCAL)
- National Citizens' Coalition for Nursing Home Reform (NCCNHR)
- National Coalition on Health Care (NCHC)
- National Commission for Quality Long-Term Care (NCQLTC)
- National Health Policy Forum (NHPF)
- National Medical Association (NMA)
- National Quality Forum (NQF)
- University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC)
- Business Coalitions
- Foundations
- Research Organizations
- Biographies of Current and Past Leaders - Current Leaders
- Current Leaders
- Aday, Lu Ann
- Aiken, Linda H.
- Altman, Drew E.
- Andersen, Ronald M.
- Arrow, Kenneth J.
- Berwick, Donald M.
- Brook, Robert H.
- Chassin, Mark R.
- Clancy, Carolyn M.
- Culyer, Anthony J.
- Davis, Karen
- Drummond, Michael
- Ellwood, Paul M.
- Enthoven, Alain C.
- Evans, Robert G.
- Feder, Judith
- Fuchs, Victor R.
- Ginsburg, Paul B.
- Grossman, Michael
- Kane, Robert L.
- Katz, Sidney
- Lee, Philip R.
- Lomas, Jonathan
- Luft, Harold S.
- Marmor, Theodore R.
- Maynard, Alan
- Mechanic, David
- Naylor, C. David
- Newhouse, Joseph P.
- O'Leary, Dennis S.
- Pauly, Mark V.
- Reinhardt, Uwe E.
- Relman, Arnold S.
- Rice, Dorothy P.
- Roos, Leslie L.
- Roos, Noralou P.
- Rosenbaum, Sara
- Sackett, David L.
- Scott, W. Richard
- Shortell, Stephen M.
- Starfield, Barbara
- Starr, Paul
- Stevens, Rosemary A.
- Tarlov, Alvin R.
- Ware, John E.
- Wennberg, John E.
- White, Kerr L.
- Wilensky, Gail R.
- Past Leaders
- Anderson, Odin W.
- Cochrane, Archibald L.
- Codman, Ernest Amory
- Cohen, Wilbur J.
- Davis, Michael M.
- Donabedian, Avedis
- Eisenberg, John M.
- Farr, William
- Flexner, Abraham
- Ginzberg, Eli
- Kimball, Justin Ford
- McNerney, Walter J.
- Nightingale, Florence
- Roemer, Milton I.
- Rorem, C. Rufus
- Shapiro, Sam
- Sheps, Cecil G.
- Thompson, John Devereaux
- Williams, Alan H.
- Current Leaders
- Cost of Care, Economics, Finance, and Payment Mechanisms
- Administrative Costs
- Capitation
- Charity Care
- Committee on the Costs of Medical Care (CCMC)
- Compensation Differentials
- Cost Containment Strategies
- Cost of Healthcare
- Cost Shifting
- Cost-Benefit and Cost-Effectiveness Analyses
- Current Procedural Terminology (CPT)
- Diagnosis Related Groups (DRGs)
- Economic Barriers to Healthcare
- Economic Recessions
- Economic Spillover
- Economies of Scale
- Fee-for-Service
- Flat-of-the-Curve Medicine
- Health Economics
- Healthcare Financial Management
- Healthcare Markets
- Inflation in Healthcare
- Long-Term Care Costs in the United States
- Market Failure
- Pay-for-Performance
- Payment Mechanisms
- Pharmacoeconomics
- Prospective Payment
- Resource-Based Relative Value Scale (RBRVS)
- Supplier-Induced Demand
- U.S. National Health Expenditures
- Uncompensated Healthcare
- Disease, Disability, Health, and Health Behavior
- Activities of Daily Living (ADL)
- Acute and Chronic Diseases
- Adverse Drug Events
- Chronic-Care Model
- Diabetes
- Disability
- Disease
- Emerging Diseases
- Genetics
- Health
- Health Indicators, Leading
- Iatrogenic Disease
- Infectious Diseases
- International Classification of Diseases (ICD)
- Life Expectancy
- Medical Sociology
- Medicalization
- Mental Health
- Morbidity
- Mortality
- Mortality, Major Causes in the United States
- Obesity
- Pain
- Prescription and Generic Drug Use
- Tobacco Use
- Government and International Healthcare Organizations
- International Organizations
- Canadian Association for Health Services and Policy Research (CAHSPR)
- Canadian Health Services Research Foundation (CHSRF)
- Canadian Institute of Health Services and Policy Research (IHSPR)
- Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)
- United Kingdom's National Health Service (NHS)
- United Kingdom's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE)
- World Health Organization (WHO)
- U.S. Government Organizations
- Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
- Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)
- Congressional Budget Office (CBO)
- Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)
- Indian Health Service (IHS)
- Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC)
- National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS)
- National Guideline Clearinghouse (NGC)
- National Information Center on Health Services Research and Health Care Technology (NICHSR)
- National Institutes of Health (NIH)
- Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
- TRICARE, Military Health System
- U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
- U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO)
- International Organizations
- Health Insurance
- Adverse Selection
- Blue Cross and Blue Shield
- Carve-Outs
- Coinsurance, Copays, and Deductibles
- Consumer-Directed Health Plans (CDHPs)
- Crowd-Out
- Employee Health Benefits
- Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs)
- Health Insurance
- Health Insurance Coverage
- Health Savings Accounts (HSAs)
- Medicaid
- Medicare
- Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Benefit
- Moral Hazard
- RAND Health Insurance Experiment
- Selective Contracting
- Single-Payer System
- State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP)
- State-Based Health Insurance Initiatives
- Tax Subsidy of Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance
- Health Professionals and Healthcare Organizations
- Academic Medical Centers
- Allied Health Professionals
- Ambulatory Care
- Case Management
- Chiropractors
- Community Health Centers (CHCs)
- Community Mental Health Centers (CMHCs)
- Complementary and Alternative Medicine
- Dentists and Dental Care
- Disease Management
- Diversity in Healthcare Management
- Emergency Medical Services (EMS)
- Eye Care Services
- Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs)
- Free Clinics
- General Practice
- Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs)
- Health Systems Agencies (HSAs)
- Health Workforce
- Healthcare Organization Theory
- Home Health Care
- Hospice
- Hospital Emergency Departments
- Hospitalists
- Hospitals
- Intensive-Care Units
- Intermediate-Care Facilities (ICFs)
- Long-Term Care
- Managed Care
- Medical Group Practice
- Multihospital Healthcare Systems
- Nonprofit Healthcare Organizations
- Nurse Practitioners (NPs)
- Nurses
- Nursing Homes
- Pharmaceutical Industry
- Pharmacy
- Physician Assistants
- Physician Workforce Issues
- Physicians
- Physicians, Osteopathic
- Preferred Provider Organizations (PPOs)
- Primary Care
- Primary-Care Case Management (PCCM)
- Primary-Care Physicians
- Skilled-Nursing Facilities
- Health Services Research
- Data Sources in Conducting Health Services Research
- Health Services Research at the Veterans Health Administration (VHA)
- Health Services Research in Australia
- Health Services Research in Canada
- Health Services Research in Dentistry and Oral Health
- Health Services Research in Eastern Europe
- Health Services Research in Germany
- Health Services Research in Sub-Saharan Africa
- Health Services Research in the People's Republic of China
- Health Services Research in the United Kingdom
- Health Services Research Journals
- Health Services Research, Definition
- Health Services Research, Origins
- Laws, Regulations, and Ethics
- Measurement, Data Sources and Coding, and Research Methods
- Case-Mix Adjustment
- Causal Analysis
- Clinical Decision Support
- Cohort Studies
- Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR)
- Computers
- Cross-Sectional Studies
- Data Privacy
- Data Security
- Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)
- Electronic Clinical Records
- Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM)
- General Health Questionnaire
- Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
- Health Informatics
- Health Surveys
- Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP)
- Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS)
- Healthcare Informatics Research
- Measurement in Health Services Research
- Meta-Analysis
- Minimum Data Set (MDS) for Nursing Home Resident Assessment
- National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB)
- ORYX Performance Measurement System
- Provider-Based Research Networks (PBRNs)
- Quality of Well-Being Scale (QWB)
- Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs)
- Satisfaction Surveys
- Severity Adjustment
- Short-Form Health Surveys (SF-36, -12, -8)
- Outcomes of Care
- Policy Issues, Healthcare Reform, and International Comparisons
- Comparing Health Systems
- Competition in Healthcare
- Equity, Efficiency, and Effectiveness in Healthcare
- Focused Factories
- For-Profit Versus Not-for-Profit Healthcare
- Forces Changing Healthcare
- Health Disparities
- Healthcare Reform
- International Health Systems
- National Health Insurance
- National Healthcare Disparities Report (NHDR)
- Public Policy
- Rationing Healthcare
- Technology Assessment
- Public Health
- Quality and Safety of Care
- Accreditation
- Benchmarking
- Clinical Practice Guidelines
- Continuum of Care
- Credentialing
- Geographic Variations in Healthcare
- International Classification for Patient Safety (ICPS)
- Malpractice
- Medical Errors
- National Healthcare Quality Report (NHQR)
- National Patient Safety Goals (NPSG)
- Nursing Home Quality
- Patient Safety
- Patient-Centered Care
- Quality Enhancement Research Initiative (QUERI) of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA)
- Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs)
- Quality Indicators
- Quality Management
- Quality of Healthcare
- Quality of Life, Health-Related (HRQOL)
- Quality-Adjusted Life Years (QALYs)
- Structure-Process-Outcome Quality Measures
- Timeliness of Healthcare
- Special and Vulnerable Groups
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