Faculty Bibliography

IMPORTANCE Nursing home residents with advanced dementia commonly experience burdensome and costly hospitalizations that may not extend survival or improve the quality of life. Fragmentation in health care has contributed to poor coordination of care for acutely ill nursing home residents. OBJECTIVE To compare patterns of care and quality outcomes for nursing home residents with advanced dementia covered by managed care with those covered by traditional fee-for-service Medicare. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Choices, Attitudes, and Strategies for Care of Advanced Dementia at the End-of-Life (CASCADE) was a prospective cohort study including 22 nursing homes in the Boston, Massachusetts, area that monitored 323 nursing home residents for 18 months to better understand the course of advanced dementia at or near the end of life. Data from CASCADE and Medicare were linked to determine the health insurance status of study participants. EXPOSURES The health insurance status of the resident, either managed care or traditional fee for service. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The outcomes included survival, symptoms related to comfort, treatment of pain and dyspnea, presence of pressure ulcers, presence of a do-not-hospitalize order, treatment of pneumonia, hospital transfer (admission or emergency department visit) for an acute illness, hospice referral, primary care visits, and family satisfaction with care. RESULTS Residents enrolled in managed care (n = 133) were more likely to have do-not-hospitalize orders compared with those in traditional Medicare fee for service (n = 158) (63.7% vs 50.9%; adjusted odds ratio, 1.9; 95% CI, 1.1-3.4), were less likely to be transferred to the hospital for acute illness (3.8% vs 15.7%; adjusted odds ratio, 0.2; 95% CI, 0.1-0.5), had more primary care visits per 90 days (mean [SD], 4.8 [2.6] vs 4.2 [5.0]; adjusted rate ratio, 1.3; 95% CI, 1.1-1.6), and had more nurse practitioner visits (3.0 [2.1] vs 0.8 [2.6]; adjusted rate ratio, 3.0; 95% CI, 2.2-4.1). Survival, comfort, and other treatment outcomes did not differ significantly across groups. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE Medicare managed-care programs may offer a promising approach to ensure that nursing homes are able to provide appropriate, less burdensome, and affordable care, especially at the end of life.

CONTEXT: Nursing home (NH) residents with advanced dementia commonly experience burdensome and costly hospitalizations that may not extend survival or improve quality of life. Cost-effectiveness analyses of decisions to hospitalize these residents have not been reported. OBJECTIVES: To estimate the cost-effectiveness of 1) not having a do-not-hospitalize (DNH) order and 2) hospitalization for suspected pneumonia in NH residents with advanced dementia. METHODS: NH residents from 22 NHs in the Boston area were followed in the Choices, Attitudes, and Strategies for Care of Advanced Dementia at the End-of-Life study conducted between February 2003 and February 2009. We conducted cost-effectiveness analyses of aggressive treatment strategies for advanced dementia residents living in NHs when they suffer from acute illness. Primary outcome measures included quality-adjusted life days (QALD) and quality-adjusted life years, Medicare expenditures, and incremental net benefits (INBs) over 15 months. RESULTS: Compared with a less aggressive strategy of avoiding hospital transfer (i.e., having DNH orders), the strategy of hospitalization was associated with an incremental increase in Medicare expenditures of $5972 and an incremental gain in quality-adjusted survival of 3.7 QALD. Hospitalization for pneumonia was associated with an incremental increase in Medicare expenditures of $3697 and an incremental reduction in quality-adjusted survival of 9.7 QALD. At a willingness-to-pay level of $100,000/quality-adjusted life years, the INBs of the more aggressive treatment strategies were negative and, therefore, not cost effective (INB for not having a DNH order, -$4958 and INB for hospital transfer for pneumonia, -$6355). CONCLUSION: Treatment strategies favoring hospitalization for NH residents with advanced dementia are not cost effective.

BACKGROUND: Nursing home residents with advanced dementia commonly experience burdensome and costly interventions (eg, hospitalization) of questionable clinical benefit. To facilitate cost-effectiveness analyses of these interventions, utility-based measures are needed in order to estimate quality-adjusted outcomes. METHODS: Nursing home residents with advanced dementia in 22 facilities were followed for 18 months (N=319). Validated health status measures ascertained from nurses at baseline, quarterly, and death (N=1702 assessments) were mapped to the Health Utilities Index Mark 2 [range, 1 (perfect health) to 0 (death); scores below 0 indicate states worse than death]. To assess validity, utility scores were compared between residents who did and did not receive burdensome interventions (parenteral therapy, percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy tubes, and hospital transfers), residents with and without pneumonia, and residents who did and did not die at the last assessment. RESULTS: Mean (+/-SD) Health Utilities Index Mark 2 utility score for the cohort was 0.165+/-0.060 (range, -0.005 to 0.215). Residents spent an average of 15.5% of their days with utilities <0.10. Lower utility scores were found among residents who received burdensome interventions (0.152+/-0.067 vs. 0.171+/-0.056; P=0.0003); had pneumonia (0.147+/-0.066 vs. 0.170+/-0.057; P=0.003); and were dying (0.163+/-0.057 vs. 0.180+/-0.055; P=0.006). CONCLUSIONS: It is feasible to map health status measures to utility-based measures for advanced dementia. This work will facilitate future cost-effectiveness analyses aimed at quantifying the cost of interventions relative to quality-based outcomes for patients with this condition.

OBJECTIVES: To describe diagnoses and factors associated with hospital transfer in nursing home (NH) residents with advanced dementia. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. SETTING: Twenty-two Boston, Massachusetts-area NHs. PARTICIPANTS: Three hundred twenty-three NH residents with advanced dementia. MEASUREMENTS: Data were collected quarterly for up to 18 months. Data regarding transfers were collected with regard to hospitalization or emergency department (ED) visit, diagnosis, and duration of inpatient admission. Information on the occurrence of any acute medical event (pneumonia, febrile episode, or other acute illness) in the prior 90 days was obtained quarterly. Logistic regression conducted at the level of the acute medical event identified characteristics associated with hospital transfer. RESULTS: The entire cohort experienced 74 hospitalizations and 60 ED visits. Suspected infections were the most common reason for hospitalization (44, 59%), most frequently attributable to a respiratory source (30, 41%). Feeding tube-related complications accounted for 47% of ED visits. In adjusted analysis conducted on acute medical events, younger resident age, event type (pneumonia or other event vs febrile episode), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and the lack of a do-not-hospitalize (DNH) order (adjusted odds ratio = 5.22, 95% confidence interval = 2.31-11.79) were associated with hospital transfer. CONCLUSION: The majority of hospitalizations of NH residents with advanced dementia were due to infections and thus were potentially avoidable, because infections are often treatable in the NH. Feeding tube-related complications accounted for almost half of all ED visits, representing a common but underrecognized burden of this intervention. Advance care planning in the form of a DNH order was the only identified modifiable factor associated with avoiding hospitalization.

BACKGROUND: Nursing home residents with advanced dementia commonly experience burdensome and costly interventions (eg, tube feeding) that may be of limited clinical benefit. To our knowledge, Medicare expenditures have not been extensively described in this population. METHODS: Nursing home residents with advanced dementia in 22 facilities (N = 323) were followed up for 18 months. Clinical and health services use data were collected every 90 days. Medicare expenditures were described. Multivariate analysis was used to identify factors associated with total 90-day expenditures for (1) all Medicare services and (2) all Medicare services excluding hospice. RESULTS: Over an 18-month period, total mean Medicare expenditures were $2303 per 90 days but were highly skewed; expenditures were less than $500 for 77.1% of the 90-day assessment periods and more than $12,000 for 5.5% of these periods. The largest proportion of Medicare expenditures were for hospitalizations (30.2%) and hospice (45.6%). Among decedents (n = 177), mean Medicare expenditures increased by 65% in each of the last 4 quarters before death owing to an increase in both acute care and hospice. After multivariable adjustment, not living in a special care dementia unit was a modifiable factor associated with higher total expenditures for all Medicare services. Lack of a do-not-hospitalize order, tube feeding, and not living in a special care unit were associated with higher nonhospice Medicare expenditures. CONCLUSIONS: Medicare expenditures among nursing home residents with advanced dementia vary substantially. Hospitalizations and hospice account for most spending. Strategies that promote high-quality palliative care may shift expenditures away from aggressive treatments for these patients at the end of life.