Translating Outstanding Performance in Skilled Nursing Facilities

The Translating Outstanding Performance in Skilled Nursing Facilities (TOP SNF) research project is funded by the National Institute of Health, National Institute on Aging (Grant ID: 1R15AG067456-01A1). Our study aims to learn directly from skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) about strategies to optimize outcomes in the growing population of patients admitted to SNFs following hospitalization.

Synergistically, the TOP SNF study will expose undergraduate and graduate students to research that will spur interest in research careers in biomedical or health sciences, as well as strengthen the research environment at the University of New Haven, which, until now, had never before received an NIH award.

Goal: The goal of the research is to discover “best practices” tied to lower readmission rates and generate practical interventions to reduce rehospitalization rates for older adult patients admitted to SNFs.

Specific Objectives: Based on interviews at SNFs exhibiting a range of performance, we will:

1. Generate hypotheses regarding which SNF strategies are likely to explain exceptionally low 30-day readmission rates among older adult patients discharged to SNFs following hospitalization in an acute care setting.
2. Develop new or modify existing interventions that could be piloted to address the most promising and practical SNF strategies (identified in objective 1) to reduce 30-day rehospitalization rates.