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Improved Transitional Care Through an Innovative Hospitalist Model: Expanding Clinician Practice From Acute to Subacute Care
Hospitalist physician rotations between acute inpatient hospitals and subacute care facilities with dedicated time in each environment may foster quality improvement and educational opportunities.
Care transitions between hospitals and skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) are a vulnerable time for patients. The current health care climate of decreasing hospital length of stay, readmission penalties, and increasing patient complexity has made hospital care transitions an important safety concern. Suboptimal transitions across clinical settings can result in adverse events, inadequately controlled comorbidities, deficient patient and caregiver preparation for discharge, medication errors, relocation stress, and overall increased morbidity and mortality.1,2 Such care transitions also may generate unnecessary spending, including avoidable readmissions, emergency department utilization, and duplicative laboratory and imaging studies. Approximately 23% of patients admitted to SNFs are readmitted to acute care hospitals within 30 days, and these patients have increased mortality rates in risk-adjusted analyses. 3,4
Compounding the magnitude of this risk and vulnerability is the significant growth in the number of patients discharged to SNFs over the past 30 years. In 2013, more than 20% of Medicare patients discharged from acute care hospitals were destined for SNFs.5,6 Paradoxically, despite the increasing need for SNF providers, there is a shortage of clinicians with training in geriatrics or nursing home care.7 The result is a growing need to identify organizational systems to optimize physician practice in these settings, enhance quality of care, especially around transitions, and increase educational training opportunities in SNFs for future practitioners.
Many SNFs today are staffed by physicians and other licensed clinicians whose exclusive practice location is the nursing facility or possibly several such facilities. This prevailing model of care can isolate the physicians, depriving them of interaction with clinicians in other specialties, and can contribute to burnout.8 This model does not lend itself to academic scholarship, quality improvement (QI), and student or resident training, as each of these endeavors depends on interprofessional collaboration as well as access to an academic medical center with additional resources.9
Few studies have described innovative hospitalist rotation models from acute to subacute care. The Cleveland Clinic implemented the Connected Care model where hospital-employed physicians and advanced practice professionals integrated into postacute care and reduced the 30-day hospital readmission rate from SNFs from 28% to 22%.10 Goth and colleagues performed a comparative effectiveness trial between a postacute care hospitalist (PACH) model and a community-based physician model of nursing home care. They found that the institution of a PACH model in a nursing home was associated with a significant increase in laboratory costs, nonsignificant reduction in medication errors and pharmacy costs, and no improvement in fall rates.11 The conclusion was that the PACH model may lead to greater clinician involvement and that the potential decrease in pharmacy costs and medications errors may offset the costs associated with additional laboratory testing. Overall, there has been a lack of studies on the impact of these hospitalist rotation models from acute to subacute care on educational programs, QI activities, and the interprofessional environment.
To achieve a system in which physicians in a SNF can excel in these areas, Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System (VABHS) adopted a staffing model in which academic hospitalist physicians rotate between the inpatient hospital and subacute settings. This report describes the model structure, the varying roles of the physicians, and early indicators of its positive effects on educational programs, QI activities, and the interprofessional environment.
Methods
The VABHS consists of a 159-bed acute care hospital in West Roxbury, Massachusetts; and a 110-bed SNF in Brockton, Massachusetts, with 3 units: a 65-bed transitional care unit (TCU), a 30-bed long-term care unit, and a 15-bed palliative care/hospice unit. The majority of patients admitted to the SNF are transferred from the acute care hospital in West Roxbury and other regional hospitals. Prior to 2015, the TCU was staffed with full-time clinicians who exclusively practiced in the SNF.
In the new staffing model, 6 hospitalist physicians divide their clinical time between the acute care hospital’s inpatient medical service and the TCU. The hospitalists come from varied backgrounds in terms of years in practice and advanced training (Table 1). 
The amount of nonclinical (protected) time and clinical time on the acute inpatient service and the TCU varies for each physician. For example, a physician serves as principal investigator for several major research grants and has a hospital-wide administrative leadership role; as a result, the principal investigator has fewer months of clinical responsibility. Physicians are expected to use the protected time for scholarship, educational program development and teaching, QI, and administrative responsibilities. The VABHS leadership determines the amount of protected time based on individualized benchmarks for research, education, and administrative responsibilities that follow VA national and local institutional guidelines. These metrics and time allocations are negotiated at the time of recruitment and then are reviewed annually.
The TCU also is staffed with 4 full-time clinicians (2 physicians and 2 physician assistants) who provide additional continuity of care. The new hospitalist staffing model only required an approximate 10% increase in TCU clinical staffing full-time equivalents. Patients and admissions are divided equally among clinicians on service (census per clinician 12-15 patients), with redistribution of patients at times of transition from clinical to nonclinical time. Blocks of clinical time are scheduled for greater than 2 weeks at a time to preserve continuity. In addition, the new staffing model allocates assignment of clinical responsibilities that allows for clinicians to take leave without resultant shortages in clinical coverage.
To facilitate communication among physicians serving in the acute inpatient facility and the TCU, leaders of both of these programs meet monthly and ad hoc to review the transitions of care between the 2 settings. The description of this model and its assessment have been reviewed and deemed exempt from oversight by the VA Boston Healthcare System Research and Development Committee.
Results
Since the implementation of this staffing model in 2015, the system has grown considerably in the breadth and depth of educational programming, QI, and systems redesign in the TCU and, more broadly, in the SNF. The TCU, which previously had limited training opportunities, has experienced marked expansion of educational offerings. It is now a site for core general medicine rotations for first-year psychiatry residents and physician assistant students. The TCU also has expanded as a clinical site for transitions-in-care internal medicine resident curricula and electives, as well as a clinical site for a geriatrics fellowship.
A hospitalist developed and implemented a 4-week interprofessional curriculum for all clinical trainees and students, which occurs continuously. The curriculum includes a monthly academic conference and 12 didactic lectures and is taught by 16 interprofessional faculty from the TCU and the Palliative Care/Hospice Unit, including medicine, geriatric and palliative care physicians, physician assistants, social workers, physical and occupational therapists, pharmacists, and a geriatric psychologist. The goal of the curriculum is to provide learners the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to perform effective, efficient, and safe transfers between clinical settings as well as education in transitional care. In addition, using a team of interprofessional faculty, the curriculum develops the interprofessional competencies of teamwork and communication. The curriculum also has provided a significant opportunity for interprofessional collaboration among faculty who have volunteered their teaching time in the development and teaching of the curriculum, with potential for improved clinical staff knowledge of other disciplines.
Quality improvement and system redesign projects in care transitions also have expanded (Table 2). 
Early assessment indicates that the new staffing model is having positive effects on the clinical environment of the TCU. A survey was conducted of a convenience sample of all physicians, nurse managers, social workers, and other members of the clinical team in the TCU (N=24)(Table 3), with response categories ranging on a Likert scale from 1 (very negative) to 5 (very positive). 
Although not rigorously analyzed using qualitative research methods, comments from respondents have consistently indicated that this staffing model increases the transfer of clinical and logistical knowledge among staff members working in the acute inpatient facility and the TCU. 
Discussion
With greater numbers of increasingly complex patients transitioning from the hospital to SNF, health care systems need to expand the capacity of their skilled nursing systems, not only to provide clinical care, but also to support QI and medical education. The VABHS developed a physician staffing model with the goal of enriching physician practice and enhancing QI and educational opportunities in its SNF. The model offers an opportunity to improve transitions in care as physicians gain a greater knowledge of both the hospital and subacute clinical settings. This hospitalist rotation model may improve the knowledge necessary for caring for patients moving across care settings, as well as improve communication between settings. It also has served as a foundation for systematic innovation in QI and education at this institution. Clinical staff in the transitional care setting have reported positive effects of this model on clinical skills and patient care, educational opportunities, as well as a desire for replication in other health care systems.
The potential generalizability of this model requires careful consideration. The VABHS is a tertiary care integrated health care system, enabling physicians to work in multiple clinical settings. Other settings may not have the staffing or clinical volume to sustain such a model. In addition, this model may increase discontinuity in patient care as hospitalists move between acute and subacute settings and nonclinical roles. This loss of continuity may be a greater concern in the SNF setting, as the inpatient hospitalist model generally involves high provider turnover as shift work. Our survey included nurse managers, and not floor nurses due to survey administration limitations, and feedback may not have captured a comprehensive view from CLC staff. Moreover, some of the perceived positive impacts also may be related to professional and personal attributes of the physicians rather than the actual model of care. In addition, the survey response rate was 86%. However, the nature of the improvement work (focused on care transitions) and educational opportunities (interprofessional care) would likely not occur had the physicians been based in one clinical setting.
Other new physician staffing models have been designed to improve the continuity between the hospital, subacute, and outpatient settings. For example, the University of Chicago Comprehensive Care model pairs patients with trained hospitalists who provide both inpatient and outpatient care, thereby optimizing continuity between these settings.14 At CareMore Health System, high-risk patients also are paired with hospitalists, referred to as “extensivists,” who lead care teams that follow patients between settings and provide acute, postacute, and outpatient care.15 In these models, a single physician takes responsibility for the patient throughout transitions of care and through various care settings. Both models have shown reduction in hospital readmissions. One concern with such models is that the treatment teams need to coexist in the various settings of care, and the ability to impact and create systematic change within each environment is limited. This may limit QI, educational opportunities, and system level impact within each environment of care.
In comparison, the “transitionalist” model proposed here features hospitalist physicians rotating between the acute inpatient hospital and subacute care with dedicated time in each environment. This innovative organizational structure may enhance physician practice and enrich QI and educational opportunities in SNFs. Further evaluation will include the impact on quality metrics of patient care and patient satisfaction, as this model has the potential to influence quality, cost, and overall health outcomes.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Shivani Jindal, Matthew Russell, Matthew Ronan, Juman Hijab, Wei Shen, Sandra Vilbrun-Bruno, and Jack Earnshaw for their significant contributions to this staffing model. We would also like to thank Paul Conlin, Jay Orlander, and the leadership team of Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System for supporting this staffing model.
1. Forster AJ, Murff HJ, Peterson JF, Gandhi TK, Bates DW. Adverse drug events occurring following hospital discharge. J Gen Intern Med. 2005;20(4):317-323.
2. Murtaugh CM, Litke A. Transitions through postacute and long-term care settings: patterns of use and outcomes for a national cohort of elders. Med Care. 2002;40(3):227-236.
3. Burke RE, Whitfield EA, Hittle D, et al. Hospital readmission from post-acute care facilities: risk factors, timing, and outcomes. J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2016;17(3):249-255.
4. Mor V, Intrator O, Feng Z, Grabowski DC. The revolving door of rehospitalization from skilled nursing facilities. Health Aff (Millwood). 2010;29(1):57-64.
5. Tian W. An all-payer view of hospital discharge to postacute care, 2013: Statistical Brief #205. https://www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/reports/statbriefs/sb205-Hospital-Discharge-Postacute-Care.jsp. Published May 2016. Accessed August 13, 2018.
6. Barnett ML, Grabowski DC, Mehrotra A. Home-to-home time–measuring what matters to patients and payers. N Engl J Med. 2017;377(1):4-6.
7. Golden AG, Silverman MA, Mintzer MJ. Is geriatric medicine terminally ill? Ann Intern Med. 2012;156(9):654-656.
8. Nazir A, Smalbrugge M, Moser A, et al. The prevalence of burnout among nursing home physicians: an international perspective. J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2018;19(1):86-88.
9. Coleman EA, Berenson RA. Lost in transition: challenges and opportunities for improving the quality of transitional care. Ann Intern Med. 2004;141(7):533-536.
10. Kim LD, Kou L, Hu B, Gorodeski EZ, Rothberg MB. Impact of a connected care model on 30-day readmission rates from skilled nursing facilities. J Hosp Med. 2017;12(4):238-244.
11. Gloth MF, Gloth MJ. A comparative effectiveness trial between a post-acute care hospitalist model and a community-based physician model of nursing home care. J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2011;12(5):384-386.
12. Baughman AW, Cain G, Ruopp MD, et al. Improving access to care by admission process redesign in a veterans affairs skilled nursing facility. Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf. 2018;44(8):454-462.
13. Mixon A, Smith GR, Dalal A et al. The Multi-Center Medication Reconciliation Quality Improvement Study 2 (MARQUIS2): methods and implementation. Abstract 248. Present at: Society of Hospital Medicine Annual Meeting; 2018 Apr 8 – 11, 2018; Orlando, FL. https://www.shmabstracts.com/abstract/the-multi-center-medication-reconciliation-quality-improvement-study-2-marquis2-methods-and-implementation. Accessed August 13, 2018.
14. Meltzer DO, Ruhnke GW. Redesigning care for patients at increased hospitalization risk: the comprehensive care physician model. Health Aff (Millwood). 2014;33(5):770-777.
15. Powers BW, Milstein A, Jain SH. Delivery models for high-risk older patients: back to the future? JAMA. 2016;315(1):23-24.
Hospitalist physician rotations between acute inpatient hospitals and subacute care facilities with dedicated time in each environment may foster quality improvement and educational opportunities.
Hospitalist physician rotations between acute inpatient hospitals and subacute care facilities with dedicated time in each environment may foster quality improvement and educational opportunities.
Care transitions between hospitals and skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) are a vulnerable time for patients. The current health care climate of decreasing hospital length of stay, readmission penalties, and increasing patient complexity has made hospital care transitions an important safety concern. Suboptimal transitions across clinical settings can result in adverse events, inadequately controlled comorbidities, deficient patient and caregiver preparation for discharge, medication errors, relocation stress, and overall increased morbidity and mortality.1,2 Such care transitions also may generate unnecessary spending, including avoidable readmissions, emergency department utilization, and duplicative laboratory and imaging studies. Approximately 23% of patients admitted to SNFs are readmitted to acute care hospitals within 30 days, and these patients have increased mortality rates in risk-adjusted analyses. 3,4
Compounding the magnitude of this risk and vulnerability is the significant growth in the number of patients discharged to SNFs over the past 30 years. In 2013, more than 20% of Medicare patients discharged from acute care hospitals were destined for SNFs.5,6 Paradoxically, despite the increasing need for SNF providers, there is a shortage of clinicians with training in geriatrics or nursing home care.7 The result is a growing need to identify organizational systems to optimize physician practice in these settings, enhance quality of care, especially around transitions, and increase educational training opportunities in SNFs for future practitioners.
Many SNFs today are staffed by physicians and other licensed clinicians whose exclusive practice location is the nursing facility or possibly several such facilities. This prevailing model of care can isolate the physicians, depriving them of interaction with clinicians in other specialties, and can contribute to burnout.8 This model does not lend itself to academic scholarship, quality improvement (QI), and student or resident training, as each of these endeavors depends on interprofessional collaboration as well as access to an academic medical center with additional resources.9
Few studies have described innovative hospitalist rotation models from acute to subacute care. The Cleveland Clinic implemented the Connected Care model where hospital-employed physicians and advanced practice professionals integrated into postacute care and reduced the 30-day hospital readmission rate from SNFs from 28% to 22%.10 Goth and colleagues performed a comparative effectiveness trial between a postacute care hospitalist (PACH) model and a community-based physician model of nursing home care. They found that the institution of a PACH model in a nursing home was associated with a significant increase in laboratory costs, nonsignificant reduction in medication errors and pharmacy costs, and no improvement in fall rates.11 The conclusion was that the PACH model may lead to greater clinician involvement and that the potential decrease in pharmacy costs and medications errors may offset the costs associated with additional laboratory testing. Overall, there has been a lack of studies on the impact of these hospitalist rotation models from acute to subacute care on educational programs, QI activities, and the interprofessional environment.
To achieve a system in which physicians in a SNF can excel in these areas, Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System (VABHS) adopted a staffing model in which academic hospitalist physicians rotate between the inpatient hospital and subacute settings. This report describes the model structure, the varying roles of the physicians, and early indicators of its positive effects on educational programs, QI activities, and the interprofessional environment.
Methods
The VABHS consists of a 159-bed acute care hospital in West Roxbury, Massachusetts; and a 110-bed SNF in Brockton, Massachusetts, with 3 units: a 65-bed transitional care unit (TCU), a 30-bed long-term care unit, and a 15-bed palliative care/hospice unit. The majority of patients admitted to the SNF are transferred from the acute care hospital in West Roxbury and other regional hospitals. Prior to 2015, the TCU was staffed with full-time clinicians who exclusively practiced in the SNF.
In the new staffing model, 6 hospitalist physicians divide their clinical time between the acute care hospital’s inpatient medical service and the TCU. The hospitalists come from varied backgrounds in terms of years in practice and advanced training (Table 1).
The amount of nonclinical (protected) time and clinical time on the acute inpatient service and the TCU varies for each physician. For example, a physician serves as principal investigator for several major research grants and has a hospital-wide administrative leadership role; as a result, the principal investigator has fewer months of clinical responsibility. Physicians are expected to use the protected time for scholarship, educational program development and teaching, QI, and administrative responsibilities. The VABHS leadership determines the amount of protected time based on individualized benchmarks for research, education, and administrative responsibilities that follow VA national and local institutional guidelines. These metrics and time allocations are negotiated at the time of recruitment and then are reviewed annually.
The TCU also is staffed with 4 full-time clinicians (2 physicians and 2 physician assistants) who provide additional continuity of care. The new hospitalist staffing model only required an approximate 10% increase in TCU clinical staffing full-time equivalents. Patients and admissions are divided equally among clinicians on service (census per clinician 12-15 patients), with redistribution of patients at times of transition from clinical to nonclinical time. Blocks of clinical time are scheduled for greater than 2 weeks at a time to preserve continuity. In addition, the new staffing model allocates assignment of clinical responsibilities that allows for clinicians to take leave without resultant shortages in clinical coverage.
To facilitate communication among physicians serving in the acute inpatient facility and the TCU, leaders of both of these programs meet monthly and ad hoc to review the transitions of care between the 2 settings. The description of this model and its assessment have been reviewed and deemed exempt from oversight by the VA Boston Healthcare System Research and Development Committee.
Results
Since the implementation of this staffing model in 2015, the system has grown considerably in the breadth and depth of educational programming, QI, and systems redesign in the TCU and, more broadly, in the SNF. The TCU, which previously had limited training opportunities, has experienced marked expansion of educational offerings. It is now a site for core general medicine rotations for first-year psychiatry residents and physician assistant students. The TCU also has expanded as a clinical site for transitions-in-care internal medicine resident curricula and electives, as well as a clinical site for a geriatrics fellowship.
A hospitalist developed and implemented a 4-week interprofessional curriculum for all clinical trainees and students, which occurs continuously. The curriculum includes a monthly academic conference and 12 didactic lectures and is taught by 16 interprofessional faculty from the TCU and the Palliative Care/Hospice Unit, including medicine, geriatric and palliative care physicians, physician assistants, social workers, physical and occupational therapists, pharmacists, and a geriatric psychologist. The goal of the curriculum is to provide learners the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to perform effective, efficient, and safe transfers between clinical settings as well as education in transitional care. In addition, using a team of interprofessional faculty, the curriculum develops the interprofessional competencies of teamwork and communication. The curriculum also has provided a significant opportunity for interprofessional collaboration among faculty who have volunteered their teaching time in the development and teaching of the curriculum, with potential for improved clinical staff knowledge of other disciplines.
Quality improvement and system redesign projects in care transitions also have expanded (Table 2).
Early assessment indicates that the new staffing model is having positive effects on the clinical environment of the TCU. A survey was conducted of a convenience sample of all physicians, nurse managers, social workers, and other members of the clinical team in the TCU (N=24)(Table 3), with response categories ranging on a Likert scale from 1 (very negative) to 5 (very positive).
Although not rigorously analyzed using qualitative research methods, comments from respondents have consistently indicated that this staffing model increases the transfer of clinical and logistical knowledge among staff members working in the acute inpatient facility and the TCU.
Discussion
With greater numbers of increasingly complex patients transitioning from the hospital to SNF, health care systems need to expand the capacity of their skilled nursing systems, not only to provide clinical care, but also to support QI and medical education. The VABHS developed a physician staffing model with the goal of enriching physician practice and enhancing QI and educational opportunities in its SNF. The model offers an opportunity to improve transitions in care as physicians gain a greater knowledge of both the hospital and subacute clinical settings. This hospitalist rotation model may improve the knowledge necessary for caring for patients moving across care settings, as well as improve communication between settings. It also has served as a foundation for systematic innovation in QI and education at this institution. Clinical staff in the transitional care setting have reported positive effects of this model on clinical skills and patient care, educational opportunities, as well as a desire for replication in other health care systems.
The potential generalizability of this model requires careful consideration. The VABHS is a tertiary care integrated health care system, enabling physicians to work in multiple clinical settings. Other settings may not have the staffing or clinical volume to sustain such a model. In addition, this model may increase discontinuity in patient care as hospitalists move between acute and subacute settings and nonclinical roles. This loss of continuity may be a greater concern in the SNF setting, as the inpatient hospitalist model generally involves high provider turnover as shift work. Our survey included nurse managers, and not floor nurses due to survey administration limitations, and feedback may not have captured a comprehensive view from CLC staff. Moreover, some of the perceived positive impacts also may be related to professional and personal attributes of the physicians rather than the actual model of care. In addition, the survey response rate was 86%. However, the nature of the improvement work (focused on care transitions) and educational opportunities (interprofessional care) would likely not occur had the physicians been based in one clinical setting.
Other new physician staffing models have been designed to improve the continuity between the hospital, subacute, and outpatient settings. For example, the University of Chicago Comprehensive Care model pairs patients with trained hospitalists who provide both inpatient and outpatient care, thereby optimizing continuity between these settings.14 At CareMore Health System, high-risk patients also are paired with hospitalists, referred to as “extensivists,” who lead care teams that follow patients between settings and provide acute, postacute, and outpatient care.15 In these models, a single physician takes responsibility for the patient throughout transitions of care and through various care settings. Both models have shown reduction in hospital readmissions. One concern with such models is that the treatment teams need to coexist in the various settings of care, and the ability to impact and create systematic change within each environment is limited. This may limit QI, educational opportunities, and system level impact within each environment of care.
In comparison, the “transitionalist” model proposed here features hospitalist physicians rotating between the acute inpatient hospital and subacute care with dedicated time in each environment. This innovative organizational structure may enhance physician practice and enrich QI and educational opportunities in SNFs. Further evaluation will include the impact on quality metrics of patient care and patient satisfaction, as this model has the potential to influence quality, cost, and overall health outcomes.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Shivani Jindal, Matthew Russell, Matthew Ronan, Juman Hijab, Wei Shen, Sandra Vilbrun-Bruno, and Jack Earnshaw for their significant contributions to this staffing model. We would also like to thank Paul Conlin, Jay Orlander, and the leadership team of Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System for supporting this staffing model.
Care transitions between hospitals and skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) are a vulnerable time for patients. The current health care climate of decreasing hospital length of stay, readmission penalties, and increasing patient complexity has made hospital care transitions an important safety concern. Suboptimal transitions across clinical settings can result in adverse events, inadequately controlled comorbidities, deficient patient and caregiver preparation for discharge, medication errors, relocation stress, and overall increased morbidity and mortality.1,2 Such care transitions also may generate unnecessary spending, including avoidable readmissions, emergency department utilization, and duplicative laboratory and imaging studies. Approximately 23% of patients admitted to SNFs are readmitted to acute care hospitals within 30 days, and these patients have increased mortality rates in risk-adjusted analyses. 3,4
Compounding the magnitude of this risk and vulnerability is the significant growth in the number of patients discharged to SNFs over the past 30 years. In 2013, more than 20% of Medicare patients discharged from acute care hospitals were destined for SNFs.5,6 Paradoxically, despite the increasing need for SNF providers, there is a shortage of clinicians with training in geriatrics or nursing home care.7 The result is a growing need to identify organizational systems to optimize physician practice in these settings, enhance quality of care, especially around transitions, and increase educational training opportunities in SNFs for future practitioners.
Many SNFs today are staffed by physicians and other licensed clinicians whose exclusive practice location is the nursing facility or possibly several such facilities. This prevailing model of care can isolate the physicians, depriving them of interaction with clinicians in other specialties, and can contribute to burnout.8 This model does not lend itself to academic scholarship, quality improvement (QI), and student or resident training, as each of these endeavors depends on interprofessional collaboration as well as access to an academic medical center with additional resources.9
Few studies have described innovative hospitalist rotation models from acute to subacute care. The Cleveland Clinic implemented the Connected Care model where hospital-employed physicians and advanced practice professionals integrated into postacute care and reduced the 30-day hospital readmission rate from SNFs from 28% to 22%.10 Goth and colleagues performed a comparative effectiveness trial between a postacute care hospitalist (PACH) model and a community-based physician model of nursing home care. They found that the institution of a PACH model in a nursing home was associated with a significant increase in laboratory costs, nonsignificant reduction in medication errors and pharmacy costs, and no improvement in fall rates.11 The conclusion was that the PACH model may lead to greater clinician involvement and that the potential decrease in pharmacy costs and medications errors may offset the costs associated with additional laboratory testing. Overall, there has been a lack of studies on the impact of these hospitalist rotation models from acute to subacute care on educational programs, QI activities, and the interprofessional environment.
To achieve a system in which physicians in a SNF can excel in these areas, Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System (VABHS) adopted a staffing model in which academic hospitalist physicians rotate between the inpatient hospital and subacute settings. This report describes the model structure, the varying roles of the physicians, and early indicators of its positive effects on educational programs, QI activities, and the interprofessional environment.
Methods
The VABHS consists of a 159-bed acute care hospital in West Roxbury, Massachusetts; and a 110-bed SNF in Brockton, Massachusetts, with 3 units: a 65-bed transitional care unit (TCU), a 30-bed long-term care unit, and a 15-bed palliative care/hospice unit. The majority of patients admitted to the SNF are transferred from the acute care hospital in West Roxbury and other regional hospitals. Prior to 2015, the TCU was staffed with full-time clinicians who exclusively practiced in the SNF.
In the new staffing model, 6 hospitalist physicians divide their clinical time between the acute care hospital’s inpatient medical service and the TCU. The hospitalists come from varied backgrounds in terms of years in practice and advanced training (Table 1).
The amount of nonclinical (protected) time and clinical time on the acute inpatient service and the TCU varies for each physician. For example, a physician serves as principal investigator for several major research grants and has a hospital-wide administrative leadership role; as a result, the principal investigator has fewer months of clinical responsibility. Physicians are expected to use the protected time for scholarship, educational program development and teaching, QI, and administrative responsibilities. The VABHS leadership determines the amount of protected time based on individualized benchmarks for research, education, and administrative responsibilities that follow VA national and local institutional guidelines. These metrics and time allocations are negotiated at the time of recruitment and then are reviewed annually.
The TCU also is staffed with 4 full-time clinicians (2 physicians and 2 physician assistants) who provide additional continuity of care. The new hospitalist staffing model only required an approximate 10% increase in TCU clinical staffing full-time equivalents. Patients and admissions are divided equally among clinicians on service (census per clinician 12-15 patients), with redistribution of patients at times of transition from clinical to nonclinical time. Blocks of clinical time are scheduled for greater than 2 weeks at a time to preserve continuity. In addition, the new staffing model allocates assignment of clinical responsibilities that allows for clinicians to take leave without resultant shortages in clinical coverage.
To facilitate communication among physicians serving in the acute inpatient facility and the TCU, leaders of both of these programs meet monthly and ad hoc to review the transitions of care between the 2 settings. The description of this model and its assessment have been reviewed and deemed exempt from oversight by the VA Boston Healthcare System Research and Development Committee.
Results
Since the implementation of this staffing model in 2015, the system has grown considerably in the breadth and depth of educational programming, QI, and systems redesign in the TCU and, more broadly, in the SNF. The TCU, which previously had limited training opportunities, has experienced marked expansion of educational offerings. It is now a site for core general medicine rotations for first-year psychiatry residents and physician assistant students. The TCU also has expanded as a clinical site for transitions-in-care internal medicine resident curricula and electives, as well as a clinical site for a geriatrics fellowship.
A hospitalist developed and implemented a 4-week interprofessional curriculum for all clinical trainees and students, which occurs continuously. The curriculum includes a monthly academic conference and 12 didactic lectures and is taught by 16 interprofessional faculty from the TCU and the Palliative Care/Hospice Unit, including medicine, geriatric and palliative care physicians, physician assistants, social workers, physical and occupational therapists, pharmacists, and a geriatric psychologist. The goal of the curriculum is to provide learners the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to perform effective, efficient, and safe transfers between clinical settings as well as education in transitional care. In addition, using a team of interprofessional faculty, the curriculum develops the interprofessional competencies of teamwork and communication. The curriculum also has provided a significant opportunity for interprofessional collaboration among faculty who have volunteered their teaching time in the development and teaching of the curriculum, with potential for improved clinical staff knowledge of other disciplines.
Quality improvement and system redesign projects in care transitions also have expanded (Table 2).
Early assessment indicates that the new staffing model is having positive effects on the clinical environment of the TCU. A survey was conducted of a convenience sample of all physicians, nurse managers, social workers, and other members of the clinical team in the TCU (N=24)(Table 3), with response categories ranging on a Likert scale from 1 (very negative) to 5 (very positive).
Although not rigorously analyzed using qualitative research methods, comments from respondents have consistently indicated that this staffing model increases the transfer of clinical and logistical knowledge among staff members working in the acute inpatient facility and the TCU.
Discussion
With greater numbers of increasingly complex patients transitioning from the hospital to SNF, health care systems need to expand the capacity of their skilled nursing systems, not only to provide clinical care, but also to support QI and medical education. The VABHS developed a physician staffing model with the goal of enriching physician practice and enhancing QI and educational opportunities in its SNF. The model offers an opportunity to improve transitions in care as physicians gain a greater knowledge of both the hospital and subacute clinical settings. This hospitalist rotation model may improve the knowledge necessary for caring for patients moving across care settings, as well as improve communication between settings. It also has served as a foundation for systematic innovation in QI and education at this institution. Clinical staff in the transitional care setting have reported positive effects of this model on clinical skills and patient care, educational opportunities, as well as a desire for replication in other health care systems.
The potential generalizability of this model requires careful consideration. The VABHS is a tertiary care integrated health care system, enabling physicians to work in multiple clinical settings. Other settings may not have the staffing or clinical volume to sustain such a model. In addition, this model may increase discontinuity in patient care as hospitalists move between acute and subacute settings and nonclinical roles. This loss of continuity may be a greater concern in the SNF setting, as the inpatient hospitalist model generally involves high provider turnover as shift work. Our survey included nurse managers, and not floor nurses due to survey administration limitations, and feedback may not have captured a comprehensive view from CLC staff. Moreover, some of the perceived positive impacts also may be related to professional and personal attributes of the physicians rather than the actual model of care. In addition, the survey response rate was 86%. However, the nature of the improvement work (focused on care transitions) and educational opportunities (interprofessional care) would likely not occur had the physicians been based in one clinical setting.
Other new physician staffing models have been designed to improve the continuity between the hospital, subacute, and outpatient settings. For example, the University of Chicago Comprehensive Care model pairs patients with trained hospitalists who provide both inpatient and outpatient care, thereby optimizing continuity between these settings.14 At CareMore Health System, high-risk patients also are paired with hospitalists, referred to as “extensivists,” who lead care teams that follow patients between settings and provide acute, postacute, and outpatient care.15 In these models, a single physician takes responsibility for the patient throughout transitions of care and through various care settings. Both models have shown reduction in hospital readmissions. One concern with such models is that the treatment teams need to coexist in the various settings of care, and the ability to impact and create systematic change within each environment is limited. This may limit QI, educational opportunities, and system level impact within each environment of care.
In comparison, the “transitionalist” model proposed here features hospitalist physicians rotating between the acute inpatient hospital and subacute care with dedicated time in each environment. This innovative organizational structure may enhance physician practice and enrich QI and educational opportunities in SNFs. Further evaluation will include the impact on quality metrics of patient care and patient satisfaction, as this model has the potential to influence quality, cost, and overall health outcomes.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Shivani Jindal, Matthew Russell, Matthew Ronan, Juman Hijab, Wei Shen, Sandra Vilbrun-Bruno, and Jack Earnshaw for their significant contributions to this staffing model. We would also like to thank Paul Conlin, Jay Orlander, and the leadership team of Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System for supporting this staffing model.
1. Forster AJ, Murff HJ, Peterson JF, Gandhi TK, Bates DW. Adverse drug events occurring following hospital discharge. J Gen Intern Med. 2005;20(4):317-323.
2. Murtaugh CM, Litke A. Transitions through postacute and long-term care settings: patterns of use and outcomes for a national cohort of elders. Med Care. 2002;40(3):227-236.
3. Burke RE, Whitfield EA, Hittle D, et al. Hospital readmission from post-acute care facilities: risk factors, timing, and outcomes. J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2016;17(3):249-255.
4. Mor V, Intrator O, Feng Z, Grabowski DC. The revolving door of rehospitalization from skilled nursing facilities. Health Aff (Millwood). 2010;29(1):57-64.
5. Tian W. An all-payer view of hospital discharge to postacute care, 2013: Statistical Brief #205. https://www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/reports/statbriefs/sb205-Hospital-Discharge-Postacute-Care.jsp. Published May 2016. Accessed August 13, 2018.
6. Barnett ML, Grabowski DC, Mehrotra A. Home-to-home time–measuring what matters to patients and payers. N Engl J Med. 2017;377(1):4-6.
7. Golden AG, Silverman MA, Mintzer MJ. Is geriatric medicine terminally ill? Ann Intern Med. 2012;156(9):654-656.
8. Nazir A, Smalbrugge M, Moser A, et al. The prevalence of burnout among nursing home physicians: an international perspective. J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2018;19(1):86-88.
9. Coleman EA, Berenson RA. Lost in transition: challenges and opportunities for improving the quality of transitional care. Ann Intern Med. 2004;141(7):533-536.
10. Kim LD, Kou L, Hu B, Gorodeski EZ, Rothberg MB. Impact of a connected care model on 30-day readmission rates from skilled nursing facilities. J Hosp Med. 2017;12(4):238-244.
11. Gloth MF, Gloth MJ. A comparative effectiveness trial between a post-acute care hospitalist model and a community-based physician model of nursing home care. J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2011;12(5):384-386.
12. Baughman AW, Cain G, Ruopp MD, et al. Improving access to care by admission process redesign in a veterans affairs skilled nursing facility. Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf. 2018;44(8):454-462.
13. Mixon A, Smith GR, Dalal A et al. The Multi-Center Medication Reconciliation Quality Improvement Study 2 (MARQUIS2): methods and implementation. Abstract 248. Present at: Society of Hospital Medicine Annual Meeting; 2018 Apr 8 – 11, 2018; Orlando, FL. https://www.shmabstracts.com/abstract/the-multi-center-medication-reconciliation-quality-improvement-study-2-marquis2-methods-and-implementation. Accessed August 13, 2018.
14. Meltzer DO, Ruhnke GW. Redesigning care for patients at increased hospitalization risk: the comprehensive care physician model. Health Aff (Millwood). 2014;33(5):770-777.
15. Powers BW, Milstein A, Jain SH. Delivery models for high-risk older patients: back to the future? JAMA. 2016;315(1):23-24.
1. Forster AJ, Murff HJ, Peterson JF, Gandhi TK, Bates DW. Adverse drug events occurring following hospital discharge. J Gen Intern Med. 2005;20(4):317-323.
2. Murtaugh CM, Litke A. Transitions through postacute and long-term care settings: patterns of use and outcomes for a national cohort of elders. Med Care. 2002;40(3):227-236.
3. Burke RE, Whitfield EA, Hittle D, et al. Hospital readmission from post-acute care facilities: risk factors, timing, and outcomes. J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2016;17(3):249-255.
4. Mor V, Intrator O, Feng Z, Grabowski DC. The revolving door of rehospitalization from skilled nursing facilities. Health Aff (Millwood). 2010;29(1):57-64.
5. Tian W. An all-payer view of hospital discharge to postacute care, 2013: Statistical Brief #205. https://www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/reports/statbriefs/sb205-Hospital-Discharge-Postacute-Care.jsp. Published May 2016. Accessed August 13, 2018.
6. Barnett ML, Grabowski DC, Mehrotra A. Home-to-home time–measuring what matters to patients and payers. N Engl J Med. 2017;377(1):4-6.
7. Golden AG, Silverman MA, Mintzer MJ. Is geriatric medicine terminally ill? Ann Intern Med. 2012;156(9):654-656.
8. Nazir A, Smalbrugge M, Moser A, et al. The prevalence of burnout among nursing home physicians: an international perspective. J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2018;19(1):86-88.
9. Coleman EA, Berenson RA. Lost in transition: challenges and opportunities for improving the quality of transitional care. Ann Intern Med. 2004;141(7):533-536.
10. Kim LD, Kou L, Hu B, Gorodeski EZ, Rothberg MB. Impact of a connected care model on 30-day readmission rates from skilled nursing facilities. J Hosp Med. 2017;12(4):238-244.
11. Gloth MF, Gloth MJ. A comparative effectiveness trial between a post-acute care hospitalist model and a community-based physician model of nursing home care. J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2011;12(5):384-386.
12. Baughman AW, Cain G, Ruopp MD, et al. Improving access to care by admission process redesign in a veterans affairs skilled nursing facility. Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf. 2018;44(8):454-462.
13. Mixon A, Smith GR, Dalal A et al. The Multi-Center Medication Reconciliation Quality Improvement Study 2 (MARQUIS2): methods and implementation. Abstract 248. Present at: Society of Hospital Medicine Annual Meeting; 2018 Apr 8 – 11, 2018; Orlando, FL. https://www.shmabstracts.com/abstract/the-multi-center-medication-reconciliation-quality-improvement-study-2-marquis2-methods-and-implementation. Accessed August 13, 2018.
14. Meltzer DO, Ruhnke GW. Redesigning care for patients at increased hospitalization risk: the comprehensive care physician model. Health Aff (Millwood). 2014;33(5):770-777.
15. Powers BW, Milstein A, Jain SH. Delivery models for high-risk older patients: back to the future? JAMA. 2016;315(1):23-24.