News > United Hospital Fund Report Documents a Decade of Change in New York's Nursing Homes

A new report from the United Hospital Fund documents a ten-year trend among New York's nursing homes, marking their growing role as providers of short-term care for people continuing recuperation after a hospital stay.

While this and many of the other changes identified in the report have been tracked on a national level, Changes in Nursing Home Care, 1996-2005: New York State is the first independent report to document that these trends are occurring in New York, too. The report was written for the Medicaid Institute™ at United Hospital Fund by Professor Thomas Dennison of the Center for Policy Research at Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

Among the report's findings:

• The number of facilities and beds statewide changed very little over the ten-year period, while the occupancy rate declined from 96.9 percent in 1996 to 93.2 percent in 2005.

• Over the same period, the number of nursing home admissions more than doubled, from 0.78 per bed in 1996 to 1.76 per bed in 2005.

• Although the majority of users of nursing facilities are still long-stay, the number of patients staying in a nursing home for less than two months more than tripled, from just over 39,000 in 1996 to over 135,000 in 2005.

• Between 1996 and 2005, both long-term residents and short-term patients have become more disabled, and more of them are cognitively impaired. In 2005, there were also more mental health diagnoses among them than in earlier years.

The report outlines many of the factors influencing these changes, which include financial pressures on hospitals and increased options for the elderly and disabled.

“That these changes have taken place should not surprise anyone,” said James R. Tallon, Jr., president of the United Hospital Fund. “More important, the trends do not appear to be showing signs of slowing. To plan well, we can't get trapped thinking that patterns of use today are what we'll be dealing with tomorrow.”

The full report is available online.

About the United Hospital Fund: The United Hospital Fund is a health services research and philanthropic organization whose mission is to shape positive change in health care for the people of New York.

About the Medicaid Institute™: The Medicaid Institute at United Hospital Fund provides information and analysis explaining New York's Medicaid program, with the goal of helping all stakeholders redesign, restructure, and rebuild the program.