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Applications to medical schools surged to a record high in 2021, and women and minority members are making gains, according to new data released by the Association of American Medical Colleges.

Nationwide, 62,443 people applied to medical schools in the 2021-22 year, an 18% increase from the previous year, the AAMC said Wednesday. 

It's far and away the largest one-year increase, in terms of percentage, in two decades. The second biggest one-year rise came in 2007, when there was an 8% uptick in applications.

Norma Poll-Hunter, the AAMC’s senior director of workforce diversity, attributed the surprising spike to several factors. The COVID-19 pandemic may have spurred people to pursue careers as physicians, she said.

"There was more of a call to action with public health being in the news every day," Poll-Hunter said in a phone interview. 

The pandemic may have given some "a nudge to kind of move forward and apply to medical school," she said.

Some practical reasons clearly have played a role, Poll-Hunter said. 

With the pandemic, medical schools relaxed application deadlines and allowed prospective medical students to do video interviews, increasing accessibility. Some schools made the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) optional. 

"Because of the pandemic, schools were more flexible with their application processes," Poll-Hunter said.

David J. Skorton, AAMC’s president and CEO, said the uptick in applications is welcome amidst projections of a 

“It is gratifying to see this growth in the diversity and number of students interested in a career in medicine, particularly during such a unique time in history as a result of the global pandemic and the growing recognition of the effects of health disparities in our country,” Skorton said in a statement.

Overall, medical school enrollment rose to 95,475, a 1.5% increase, the AAMC reported.

Women accounted for 56.8% of applicants and 52.7% of medical school enrollment. AAMC leaders have said recruiting more women is a key step to addressing the shortage of doctors.

Healthcare leaders have also said women need more support as they begin their medical careers. Specifically, experts say the pay gap for women physicians must be addressed, and healthcare systems should be offering better family leave policies.

Female physicians earn $2M less in their careers

COVID-19 pandemic is having a disproportionate impact on careers of women doctors

Medical schools are gaining in diversity. The number of Black first-year students rose to 2,562, a 21% increase. And the number of first-year students who are Hispanic or Latino rose to 2,869, a 7.1% increase. There were 6,004 Asian first-year students, an 8% increase.

But in one setback, the number of first-year American Indian or Alaska Native students dropped by 8.5%, to 227. That's a source of concern, Poll-Hunter said.

While more people from underrepresented groups are applying to medical school, Poll-Hunter indicated it's hardly time to declare mission accomplished when it comes to diversity.

"We are making some gains. We have a long way to go," Poll-Hunter said.

Medical schools need to be inclusive for all students, including those from minority groups and those with disabilities. 

In 2021, about 8% of medical school graduates identified as having a disability. But less than half of those students with disabilities said their medical schools gave them accommodations to assist them, students said in an AAMC survey.

More programs should be launched to introduce medicine and science to children of minority groups early in their school careers, even in kindergarten, Poll-Hunter said.

“We have to consider innovative ways to attract individuals from diverse communities," she added. 

Medical schools also need to consider more "holistic" admissions policies, Poll-Hunter said. Medical colleges need to consider more than GPAs and MCATs and weigh the whole set of skills and potential of students. Admissions offices also should undergo unconscious bias training, she said.

It's also important to pay attention to socio-economic diversity in medical school applicants, Poll-Hunter said. She noted 80% of medical students come from families in the top-fifth of incomes. 

At the federal level, lawmakers can expand and diversity the pool of applicants by approving more Medicare-funded slots for graduate medical education. Lawmakers have proposed more aid for medical education in 2022 budget proposals, and healthcare advocates hope those plans come to fruition.

This year’s crop of new medical school students ranged in age from 16 to 55, a wider range than last year, the AAMC reported. The average student performed 650 hours of community service.

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The number of applicants rose 18% over the past year, the AAMC said. Women and members of most minority groups made gains.

Medical school applications hit record high

In Ohio, hospitals are straining amid a surge of COVID-19 patients.

Three Ohio healthcare systems - the Cleveland Clinic, the MetroHealth System and University Hospitals - jointly announced they are postponing some elective surgeries. All have seen an influx of coronavirus patients and the vast majority are unvaccinated.

University Hospitals are treating more COVID-19 patients than at any time since the pandemic began.

“Emergency rooms are very crowded,” said Dr. Daniel Simon, president of academic and external affairs and chief scientific officer at University Hospitals.

While the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations nationwide remains well below levels seen in September, states such as Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania are seeing more patients packing their hospitals. Some states in the Midwest and New England are seeing peaks in COVID-19 hospitalizations. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Monday elective procedures will be halted at more than 30 hospitals due to capacity issues.

In Ohio, University Hospitals is rescheduling non-urgent surgeries that require an overnight stay. Urgent procedures, such as surgeries for cancers or to prevent organ deterioration, are still being performed. Elective procedures that don’t require an overnight stay are still being scheduled.

The Cleveland Clinic is halting the scheduling of most non-urgent inpatient surgeries through Jan. 3, 2022. The system said it will evaluate the policy as conditions warrant.

MetroHealth said it is postponing some elective procedures and encouraging the use of its “Hospital at Home” program to free up space for patients.

More than 4,200 COVID-19 patients are hospitalized in Ohio, an 11% increase over the past week, according to the 

. Over the last month, Ohio’s COVID-19 hospitalizations have roughly doubled.

The latest surge is enormously challenging and disappointing as hospital workers have endured so much stress for nearly two years, Simon said. But this new surge offers greater challenges.

Like other healthcare systems around the country, University Hospitals is facing serious staffing shortages, from nursing to nutrition, Simon said. 

Nearly all the COVID-19 patients in University Hospitals have the Delta variant, Simon said. They haven’t seen any patients yet with the emerging Omicron variant. The system is seeing a pandemic-high level of COVID-19 cases, even as patients are packing the hospitals for other reasons.

The University system is seeing “significantly more flu cases” than last year, Simon said. More patients are arriving with respiratory viruses. Some patients who delayed treatment for healthcare issues due to the pandemic are coming to the hospital because they can’t wait any longer.

“You throw everything together and you’ve got a very high utilization,” Simon said.

Most of those who are hospitalized at University have not been vaccinated, Simon said. Some breakthrough cases are emerging among vaccinated patients who have had some underlying health conditions. But virtually all the system’s ICU patients are unvaccinated.

University Hospitals is projecting the peak in cases will come between Dec. 14-17. However, Simon said staff are concerned about what happens as people travel for the holidays or have family gatherings.

Ohio’s sluggish vaccination rate compounds the problems. 

Ohio ranks among the nation’s ten lowest in COVID-19 vaccinations, with only 59% of the state’s residents getting at least one dose. Nationwide, 71% of Americans have had at least one vaccine dose, according to The New York Times. Simon, who recently traveled to Illinois and California, said it was startling to see how residents in those states were much more apt to take precautions, including wearing masks and social distancing.

When asked how hospital staff are weathering this new spike, Simon spoke with glowing praise about their work under adverse conditions. But he acknowledged the surge is deflating.

“They’re very resilient. We’re forever indebted to them. They’re compassionate, they’re agile and nimble. They’ll do whatever it takes,” Simon said.

Then he added, “They’re very frustrated to be in this situation.”

Simon said he hopes Ohio residents will get vaccinated and take steps such as social distancing and washing hands.

“I’m asking, maybe begging, our communities to do all the things we know that reduces transmission of the virus,” Simon said.

“Hopefully, it will help the community and everyone in the hospitals.”

Across the border of Ohio, Pennsylvania is seeing its biggest surge of hospitalizations since January. Nearly 4,300 COVID-19 patients are getting treated in hospitals, according to data from the 

In the UPMC System, hospitals are seeing an influx of COVID-19 patients and more patients with other illnesses, Don Yealy, chief medical officer, told 

On Wednesday, Geisinger, one of Pennsylvania's largest health systems, said it had run out of beds in its nine hospitals due to the latest COVID-19 surge, the Associated Press reported. 

Last week, Mount Nittany Medical Center, a hospital near Penn State University’s flagship campus in central Pennsylvania, temporarily diverted ambulances from its emergency department.

Dr. Upendra Thaker, Mount Nittany’s chief medical officer, said the number of COVID-19 patients is straining the hospital and others in Pennsylvania.

“Things are as challenging as they have ever been during the past 21 months of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Thaker said in a statement. “Caring for COVID patients is like operating a hospital within a hospital. It takes extraordinary resources to operate at this capacity.”

On Monday, Michigan hit a record 4,356 COVID-19 hospitalizations, 

Michigan is seeing both COVID and non-COVID patients packing hospitals and military medical teams are assisting some overwhelmed hospitals. Brian Peters, CEO of the Michigan Health and Hospital Association, spoke bluntly about the situation.

“Michigan’s health care systems are stretched beyond their limits – so much so that the U.S. Department of Defense is providing clinical staffing support to hospitals throughout the state that are operating at capacity, delaying non-emergency medical procedures and placing their emergency departments on diversion,” Peters said in a Dec. 2 statement.

Hospitals elsewhere are taking steps to deal with capacity challenges and staffing shortages. In 

, state officials ordered hospitals with limited capacity to delay some elective procedures.

In Minnesota, COVID-19 patients requiring treatment in ICU reached a pandemic high Monday, 

Maine has seen COVID-19 hospitalizations reach a record level this week, the 

 reported. Hospitalizations have also hit a pandemic high in New Hampshire, according to 

Systems in Ohio are delaying non-urgent procedures. Hospitals across the Midwest and Northeast are packed with patients.

Some states are struggling with flood of COVID-19 patients in hospitals

Over the course of a career, the gender gap in earnings among doctors reaches seven figures, a new study has found.

Women doctors earn $2 million less than male physicians over a 40-year career, according to a 

Other studies have documented the disparity in earnings between men and women doctors. However, this new study is the first to capture the impact over the length of a career, said Christopher Whaley, a policy researcher at the RAND Corporation and lead author of the study.

He didn’t expect the career earnings gap to reach $2 million.

“That was a surprising number to see,” Whaley said in a phone interview. “That really is a stark difference in pay.”

Over the course of a simulated 40-year career, male physicians earned $8.31 million, while female doctors earned $6.26 million, the study found.

The disparities in compensation varied among different types of doctors.

The gender gap in earnings was largest among surgical specialists, with women typically earning $2.5 million less over their careers. Among non-surgical specialists, women earned $1.6 million less. Female primary care physicians earned about $900,000 less over their careers, the study found.

The study also examined the 10 most common specialties and found substantial pay disparities in each one. The smallest gap was seen in emergency medicine physicians, but the difference was still $621,952. The largest disparity among those 10 specialties was found in orthopedic surgery ($1,530,006).

It’s worth noting the study focused on full-time clinicians who typically aren’t in academic practice, Whaley said. The study may not fully capture the difficulties women have in choosing higher paying specialties.

“Our study probably understates the true differences in pay,” Whaley said.

The annual income differences appeared and accelerated at the beginning of physicians’ careers, the researchers found. He said it undercuts arguments that male doctors are earning more over time because they are treating more patients or securing more accomplishments.

“We found that those differences are apparent in year one,” Whaley said.

Even as women doctors gained more experience and were able to shed some nonclinical responsibilities, they didn’t close the pay gap. 

“It’s not a story that male physicians are just more productive,” Whaley said.

The reasons for the pay disparities vary, the researchers found. 

Gender bias and pay structures that put women at a disadvantage could be suppressing the pay for female doctors. It’s also possible that women physicians are less willing or able to change jobs and are less aggressive in negotiating compensation, the researchers said.

One study last year showed a possible explanation for the gap in earnings among women who are primary care physicians: they're spending more time with their patients.

 last year found women primary care physicians spend, on average, an additional 2.4 minutes with their patients. The study showed women generated 11% less in annual revenue because they were offering more direct patient care.

Women account for one-third of the physician workforce nationwide. About half of all medical school students are women, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. Healthcare policy leaders have said it’s critical to get more women to pursue careers in medicine to address the physician shortage.

As more women become doctors, Whaley said it could help narrow the gender gap in compensation. The study found that pay disparities were particularly pronounced in practices heavily dominated by men. In practices where there were a fairly equal balance in the number of male and female physicians, the disparities didn’t tend to be as stark.

“If the practice is more gender diverse, we’re less likely to see these more egregious career outcomes,” Whaley said.

The study is garnering considerable media attention, including coverage in 

. Whaley said there are reasons the study is resonating with people.

“What’s driving a lot of the attention is many women professionals know these factors exist,” Whaley said. “There isn’t good data to estimate the net impacts of these incremental disparities. Having these career numbers adds to the starkness of disparities in work-life balance and pay.”

Some are concerned women could be facing new career obstacles.

The COVID-19 pandemic appears to be having a 

disproportionate impact on the career of women physicians

. That study found women physicians were more likely to reduce their hours, work from home or assume child care responsibilities. The disparities were even more pronounced among couples where both parents were full-time physicians.

Healthcare leaders are hearing more calls to support women physicians. The AAMC found 40% of women physicians shift to part-time hours or leave medicine within six years of finishing their residency. 

Paid family leave policies and better child care coverage have been shown to reduce the gender gap in pay and other sectors and healthcare leaders should embrace those approaches, researchers said. Such policies could reduce pay differences earlier in the early years of practice, when women physicians are having children, and also could reduce disparities over careers. Those policies also could reduce burnout among women doctors. 

study, the authors suggested another possible remedy is adjusting compensation models to reflect health outcomes and patient satisfaction.

Whaley endorsed those ideas and also suggested more transparency in pay could help close the pay disparity for women doctors.

“If women are providing better care and patients have better outcomes, it seems that’s something we should financially reward,” Whaley said.

A new study examined the earnings data from more than 80,000 doctors. The gender gap was largest among surgical specialists.

Female doctors earn $2M less over their careers

The Leapfrog Group has named its 2021 recipients of the group’s annual Top Hospital Award, which puts a prime focus on patient safety.

The group selected 149 top hospitals from across the country and announced the recipients Tuesday morning. The organization touts its honors as “the nation’s most competitive recognition for excellence in hospital safety and quality.”

A national nonprofit organization founded by large employers, the group has been producing the annual Leapfrog Hospital Survey for two decades. The group examines surgery outcomes, infection rates, safety in giving medications and other criteria. 

The aim is to provide patients with information on safety when they make decisions about where they want to get treatment.

The top hospitals demonstrated a remarkable commitment to patient safety and transparency, especially given the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, said Erica Mobley, vice president of administration of The Leapfrog Group.

“Hospitals that have been forthcoming and transparent with their performance, in the midst of COVID, really do deserve credit for that,” Mobley said in a phone interview.

The Leapfrog Group has been conducting the survey for 20 years. 

More than 2,200 hospitals participated in the group’s 2021 survey, far above the initial survey, which covered about 200 hospitals. The survey has grown each year, Mobley said.

The goal of the Leapfrog survey is to “capture information that’s important to consumers and employers and purchasers that isn’t available anywhere else,” Mobley said.

For the first time this year, the survey included data on hospitals performing the Norwood Procedure, a complex heart surgery on babies.

Leapfrog also surveys hospitals on their policies and how they handle rare medical errors, often dubbed “never events,” such as leaving an object in a patient or operating on the wrong body part. Hospitals are asked about policies such as how they review such events, whether apologies are offered and how they address the costs for patients.

“This is a really important thing that isn’t really captured in a lot of health care ratings,” Mobley said.

Hospital infections have seen an uptick, Mobley said, which seems to align with a 

 in September that showed an increase. Before the pandemic, studies showed a decline of infections occurring in hospitals.

“That’s an area we’re going to keep watching and hoping this will be a temporary blip,” Mobley said.

Mobley said she was encouraged by the strong participation from hospitals this year. She said she had wondered if fewer hospitals would participate in the survey, given the demands of the pandemic.

“It’s important to put this information forward for the community and for the employers and purchasers who rely on their services,” Mobley said.

The Top Hospitals are recognized in four categories: general hospitals (46 recipients), rural hospitals (23 recipients), teaching hospitals (72 recipients), and children’s hospitals (8 recipients). The full results are on 

Mobley said the work of rural hospitals deserves recognition.

“Rural hospitals have a unique set of challenges, limited staffing and resources,” Mobley said. “We’re really happy we can acknowledge those hospitals still providing high quality safe care even with the challenges of being a rural hospital.”

California, Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania were the states with the most Top Hospitals, with ten or more top hospitals in each state.

Nearly 150 hospitals are recognized for quality and efforts to improve safety and transparency.

Leapfrog Group recognizes top hospitals for patient safety

Medicare beneficiaries utilized telehealth far more than ever before due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but a new report sheds new light on the staggering growth of virtual visits.

There were 52.7 million telehealth visits by Medicare beneficiaries in 2020, compared to 840,000 in 2019, according to the 

 from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. That represents a 63-fold increase over the previous year.

The federal government relaxed policies to make telehealth more accessible when COVID-19 spread nationwide. Most beneficiaries (92%) used telehealth services at home, which wasn't allowed by Medicare before the pandemic.

The report, which was released Dec. 3, found noteworthy differences in the use of telehealth visits around the country. 

Black Medicare beneficiaries and residents in rural areas were least likely to take advantage of telehealth services. States in the northeast were most likely to utilize telehealth services, the report found.

Even with the greater use of telehealth services, fewer beneficiaries had contact with a doctor in 2020. Clinician visits fell 11% in 2020 compared to the previous year.

New England states showed the highest usage of telehealth: Massachusetts, Vermont, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Connecticut. As the report noted, the COVID-19 spread rapidly in the northeast at the beginning of the pandemic, which may have spurred more patients to consider telehealth services for the first time. 

In 2020, these states had the lowest use of telehealth services: Tennessee, Nebraska, Kansas, North Dakota and Wyoming.

The report noted many Medicare beneficiaries used telehealth to gain access to behavioral health services, which showed the biggest increase of telehealth services. Telehealth accounted for more than a third of all behavioral healthcare visits from Medicare beneficiaries in 2020. 

Telehealth visits rose dramatically among primary care visits - a 24-fold increase. Still, telehealth accounted for 8.3% of primary care visits. 

Among Black patients, telehealth visits accounted for 4.7% of their total healthcare visits. White beneficiaries had a higher usage of telehealth visits: 5.3% of all visits.

However, Asian and Hispanic beneficiaries were both more likely to use telehealth than white patients, the report found. Among Asian patients, telehealth represented 6.4% of all visits, just ahead of Hispanic beneficiaries (6.2%). Among American Indian and Alaska Native beneficiaries, teleheatlh accounted for 5.6% of visits, which was also higher than white patients. 

Residents in rural areas were less likely to use telehealth (4.3% of all visits) compared to urban residents (5.7%). The report noted this could be at least in part due to challenges with internet access in rural areas. 

Last month, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services said it would pay for 

mental health services outside of the COVID-19 pandemic

In November, CMS said it will cover mental health visits by Rural Health Clinics and Federally Qualified Health Centers via telehealth, including audio-only telephone calls. CMS also said it is permanently eliminating geographic barriers and will allow patients to use telehealth for mental health services.

The report noted more research is needed to understand how the use of telehealth is  affecting health outcomes. If telehealth services are extended beyond the pandemic, it would allow researchers to understand if telehealth is offering greater access to healthcare services or is merely a substitute for in-person visits.

The data also "raises important questions about how to prevent telehealth from exacerbating existing disparities by race/ethnicity and rurality," the report's authors concluded.

CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure said the report offered important insights on the use of telehealth in the pandemic. 

"CMS will use these insights – along with input from people with Medicare and providers across the country – to inform further Medicare telehealth policies," she said in a statement.

virtual healthcare would remain one of the top health trends in 2022

The organization, which represents large employers, said virtual visits would need to be integrated with in-patient care. Patients will need help navigating virtual and in-person options for care, the group said.

Medicare reported 52.7 million telehealth visits in 2020, up from 840,000 in the previous year. But virtual visits varied among states and different groups of patients.

Medicare telehealth use increased 63-fold due to COVID-19 pandemic 

Sumir Sahgal speaks excitedly about the ways remote patient management can improve healthcare. 

Sahgal is the founder and chief medical officer of Essen Health Care, which serves more than 100,000 patients in New York. The vast majority of Essen’s patients are members of vulnerable and underserved neighborhoods and rely on Medicare and Medicaid.

Essen has teamed with Verustat, a Nashville-based company, to track patients remotely. Sahgal described the remote patient management system as “a game changer.”

Sumir Sahgal, founder and chief medical officer of Essen Health Care

“You have our team watching you,” Sahgal said in a phone interview. “It engages the patients and allows practitioners to do a much better job, to improve the quality of care and lower the cost.”

More healthcare organizations are turning to remote patient monitoring systems. 

 projected the remote patient monitoring market, which was $20 billion in 2019, would grow to $85 billion by 2026. Health systems are tracking patients remotely in a variety of ways. Last month, a 

 showed Penn Medicine’s use of a text messaging system to keep tabs on COVID-19 patients saved lives.

Essen’s patients have monitoring devices at home in items such as blood pressure cuffs or pulse oximeters. The monitors send the readings to Verustat’s care coordinators, who will call the patient if there are readings that warrant attention. Care coordinators will also touch base with patients if they see they haven’t checked their blood pressure, for example, to make sure they are OK.

The patient data is also sent to Essen at the same time, where doctors can monitor the readings and see if there are any signs of trouble.

Essen partnered with Verustat earlier this year and so far, the healthcare provider has set up nearly 500 remote patient monitoring units. Sahgal said patients have offered encouraging feedback.

About 5% of the remote readings have required calls from care coordinators, Sahgal said in late November. Of that number, 12% required a clinical intervention.

In some cases, patients with high blood pressure were put on different medications, . In some cases, Essen found patients were having issues because of the combination of prescriptions with other drugs they were taking.

“Many are on multiple medications,” he said. “As you change one, it has an effect on the other. Now we have a deeper, broader view on what’s happening at home.”

The devices are given to patients with serious illnesses and chronic conditions who would benefit from more monitoring. Saghal said it's not necessary to use such devices on people who are healthy. 

The expansion of remote patient monitoring is another tool to address health equity, Sahgal said.

“It is a vital part to expand access to underserved communities. These are people who are costliest, the sickest and need help the most,” Sahgal said.

“Health care is changing. We need to be more proactive. We need to create access to patient care,” Sahgal said.

While hospitals offer acute care, Sahgal said, “We need to transition to preventive care in the community.”

The remote patient monitoring system allows patients to feel empowered. It also aids patients, particularly older patients who don’t see as well or may occasionally forget to get their readings.

“We need to innovate,” he said. “We need to engage patients. We have to create a win-win situation for everyone: Patients, practitioners and health care situations. This is just one step toward that.”

Verustat said its system allows for better patient care and the chance to reduce healthcare costs for providers. The system is compliant with federal laws to protect patient privacy, the company said.

"Verustat enables practitioners to close the circle of care with their patients, by letting them be proactive – rather than reactive – when monitoring their healthcare," Verustat CEO Rich Roberts said in a news release. "We're very excited that our hi-tech solution and dedicated care coordinators will help Essen deepen patient engagement and provide their patients with state-of-the-art quality care."

Sahgal said the remote patient monitoring allows healthcare providers to avoid sending a nurse to home-bound patients simply to check vital signs. 

He also said it offers doctors the opportunity to get information about patients they can’t get in a quick office visit.

“It’s not a snapshot of their health,” Sahgal said of the office visit. “You need to get a bigger picture of their life outside the office. That's why it’s a game changer. Now we can know how they are in the patients’ homes.”

Essen teamed up with Verustat to monitor patients in their homes. Essen’s founder calls the partnership a “game changer.”

How Essen Health Care uses remote patient management to aid vulnerable communities

More older patients are going home after hospitalization and they are needing more help at home, a new study revealed.

In the past, when an older patient left the hospital, they’d likely go to a rehabilitation facility or perhaps a long-term care facility. Now, payers are increasingly directing patients to recover at home, and those patients are needing more assistance, University of Pennsylvania researchers found in a study published Nov. 30 on 

Healthcare policy leaders need to watch this trend, the authors wrote. The burdens and challenges for patients and their families isn’t fully understood.

“As payers steer patients away from inpatient postacute care facilities, policymakers will need to pay attention to this shifting burden of care,” the authors wrote.

Plenty of people understand the challenge of caring for a loved one. Nationwide, an estimated 53 million Americans are caring for an older adult, according to 

 by the National Alliance for Caregiving and the AARP. That’s up from 43.5 million in 2015, an increase of 9.5 million.

In this new study, the researchers said it’s not clear if the rise in adults needing help at home is directly tied to changes in payer policies. They said further research is needed to get a better handle of the cost and quality of post-discharge care of seniors.

The study examined 3,591 individuals who were discharged home from an acute care hospital between 2011 and 2017. Researchers examined how many needed help with daily living activities, such as meals, bathing or getting around. The mean age of the participants was 78.

The percentage of seniors who reported needing help at home rose from 38.1% in 2011 to 51.5% in 2017, the study found.

Those who had been independent before they went to the hospital also needed more assistance. The percentage of previously independent patients getting help at home with daily activities rose from 9.3% in 2011 to 31.8% in 2017, according to the study.

The study also looked at those who didn’t receive Medicare-reimbursed home health assistance. Over the six-year period, those participants who needed help at home rose from 22.1% to 28.1%.

As more payers shift seniors from in-patient facilities and back toward their homes, more patients need assistance, a new study shows. The burden on patients and families isn’t fully understood.
