Published On: 03-03-2021

Advanced practice registered nurses help reduce hospitalizations from nursing home residents

MU study examines effectiveness of $35 million program designed to improve quality of care in nursing homes.

Marilyn Rantz still remembers the day she got the call that her mother, whose health had been declining, had fallen and fractured her shoulder. After rushing to the hospital, her mother told her she didn’t understand how she ended up on a helicopter pad after the traumatic incident. A nearby nurse told Rantz the noise from the MRI scanning tube had caused her frightened mother to mistakenly believe she had been airlifted to the hospital on a helicopter.

Determined to prevent avoidable hospitalizations, as well as the stress and panic that often comes along with the ambulance ride, Rantz, now a Curators’ professor emerita at the University of Missouri’s Sinclair School of Nursing, dedicated her career to improving the quality of care in nursing homes. In a recent study, Rantz and her team evaluated the effectiveness of the Missouri Quality Improvement Initiative, a $35 million program funded by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid that implemented advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) full time into 16 Missouri nursing homes. They recently evaluated the program over a six-year period and found the APRNs improved the quality of care for nursing home residents, which resulted in reduced avoidable hospitalizations and emergency room visits, leading to better overall health and more than $31 million in savings.

Consiglio, Brian. “Advanced practice registered nurses help reduce hospitalizations from nursing home residents,” Show Me Mizzou News, University of Missouri, 3 Mar. 2021.

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