Statistics on Nursing Homes and Their Residents

(6/23/08)- About 1.5 million Americans live in nursing homes, and about 22% of the 5.3 million people 85 or older had a nursing home stay in 2006. There are an estimated 16,000 nursing homes in this country, and in an attempt to improve the quality of life within these homes the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is adding a rating system to its database so that the consumer is helped in evaluating these facilities.

Approximately 70% of persons with dementia die in nursing homes. (Mitchell SL. et al A national study of the location of death for older persons with dementia. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2005;53(2):299-305.)

(12/26/07)- According to statistics from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, nursing-home patients, on average, receive a half-hour of care per day from a registered nurse, plus 38 minutes from a licensed practical nurse and two hours and 18 minutes from a nurse's aide.

Figures compiled by the CDC in 2006 for the year 2003 indicate that over 40% of all deaths in the United States occur in hospitals (1.157,491 million individuals out of 2,452,154 total deaths; 544,890 die in nursing homes/long term care facilities and 584,251 die in their homes, while 5,448 die in hospice facilities, with the rest unreported) . (CDC. MortalityTables 2003.

Heart failure is the leading cause of hospitalization in the elderly. It develops in about 1 in 5 persons during their lifetime and in about 1 in 8 of those who have not sustained a myocardial infarction. Within one year of heart failure 24% to 28% of patients die, while 45% to 59% die within 5 years. (Consultation, July 2007, 47(8): 729-733) 

(8/8/04)- The costs continue to rise steeply for "long distance elder care". In a study done by the MetLife Mature Markets Institute, Westport, Ct. and the National Institute for Caregiving, a Bethesda, Md. nonprofit it was estimated that long-distance caregivers average about $392 a month, compared to $196 seven years ago.

The expenses include travel, medicine, phone bills, medical supplies, meals and home maintenance. An estimated seven million Americans are long-distance caregivers. A long-distance caregiver is defined as someone who care from afar for a chronically ailing person. Among the 80% if the long-distance caregivers who are employed, 44% have rearranged their work schedules. Thirty-six % missed days of work, with an average of 20 work hours a month lost to caregiving duties.

There are approximately 18,000 nursing homes in the United States, two-thirds of which are operated for profit, with 55% owned by large nursing home chains. There are about 1.7 million nursing home beds in the United States. This represents less than 6% of the total number of Americans over the age of 65. It suggests that the vast majority of elderly will most likely spend their final years in their community residence.

Males who reach the age of 65 can expect to have an average life expectancy of 15.5 more years and females 19.2 years. For those who reach 85, the average life expectancy for males is 5.2 years and females 6.8 years. The over 85-year-olds represent about 1.5% of our population and is expected to grow to 4.65% in 2050.

While only twelve percent of nursing home residents are between 65-74, 45% are over 85 years of age. It is estimated that anyone over 65 years of age will have a 43% chance of spending some time in a nursing home. About 24% of these individuals will spend less than a year in residence at a nursing home.

According to a 1996 publication of AARP, many of the medical problems older people have relate to chronic conditions. They include the following: 32/100 persons had arthritis, 34/100 had hypertension, 32/100 had heart disease, 29/100 had hearing impairments, 17/100 had cataracts, 16/100 had orthopedic impairments, 15/100 had sinusitis, and 10/100 had diabetes. The AARP survey also indicated that 23% of Americans over age 65 had some difficulty with activities of daily living.

More than 50% of nursing home residents have no living close relative, which may be related to the estimate that 60% of nursing home residents have no visitors.

The cost of caring for a disabled older adult in the community has been estimated, according to an article in Gerontologist (Harrow et al 1995), as $9600, while institutional care was estimated by Spillman et al, 1995, at $30000.

Congestive heart failure is the most common reason for hospitalization in people aged 65 and older in the United States. The prevalence among the 80-to 89-year-old age group is 9.1%. Adult onset diabetes mellitus affects approximately 20% of Americans aged 80 and older, and dementia affects more than 30% of people in this age group.

It would seem obvious that there is an urgent need for cost-effective programs for chronic disease and disability prevention, which would be offset against the cost for treating the disabled.

References

Harrow BS, Tennstedt SL, McKinley JB. How costly is it to care for disabled elders in a community setting. Gerontologist 1995; 35:803-813.

Spillman BC, Kenyan P., Lifetime patterns of payments for nursing home care. Medical Care 1995; 33:280-296.

AARP (1996) A profile of older Americans. Washington DC

As many of our viewers know, both Harold and I have proudly done this site in memory of our mom, Nina Rubin. It is done strictly as a public service to hopefully aid our viewers in gaining knowledge about seniors. There are no ads on the site, and anyone can view it without any charge. We are blessed at having many of our viewers help us with additional information to what we gather ourselves. Both Harold and I are deeply appreciative for whatever additional information you can supply us with. What follows are two emails from two of our viewers to whom we say thanks

The following email was from Liz Schilling who at the time was the "Interim Librarian" at the American Health Care Association. Liz, since the sending of her original email to us, has now become the "Senior Librarian" at the Association. We would like to express our thanks to Liz and congratulate her on becoming the Senior Librarian.

Allan,
A big thank you to you and your brother, Harold, for helping me so quickly with locating information on yearly nursing home admissions.

After searching some more on the Web, I found information on nursing home admissions per year (1,537,000) in the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey at
the following site: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/Puf/PufDetail.asp?ID=61. Of course, admissions include the people checking in, leaving for
hospitalization, etc. and checking back into a nursing home (same one or different nursing home).
Thank you so much for your very kind help,

Liz Schilling, Interim Librarian
American Health Care Association
Washington, DC
202-898-2842

The following is a copy of an email from a viewer who is associated with the National Citizens Coalition for Nursing Home Reform. We would like to thank her for this update on some of the statistics on nursing homes and their residents:

Dear Mr. Rubin (Harold),
Here are some excerpts from the draft document I mentioned using the latest available statistics:

According to the National Center for Health Statistics as surveyed from July to December 1999, there were 1,628,300 nursing home residents.

Between 1993 and 1999, most states experienced a decrease in nursing home population, the most significant in MD and NJ. However, a few states showed significant increases, namely FL and WV. The picture looked very different in 2000 and 2001, which showed significant increases from 1999 in a number of states especially along the east coast including DE, MD, NC, NJ, SC, and DC. Only two western states, AZ and SD, and one midwestern state, OH, showed a similar trend. (This is from Charlene Harrington's work.)

The 1999 National Nursing Home Survey reports 18,000 nursing homes. · Of all facilities, 67% were proprietary, 27% voluntary nonprofit, and 6% government and other. There were an estimated 1.9 million nursing home beds in 1999, 94% were Medicaid certified, 84% were Medicare certified and 3% were not certified

Since 1980, the percentage of the nursing home population aged 65 to 84 has declined and the percentage of residents over age 85 has increased. This mirrors the trend in the total population regarding percentage of various age cohorts receiving nursing home care.

Age Group Percentage of Nursing Home Population Age (1999)

65-74yrs. --12%
75-84-yrs. -32%
85+ yrs. 46%

2.4 years varying with gender, age, ethnicity and type of facility; also influenced by the increasing use of short-term stays following hospitalization
2.51years for females
2.29 years for males
1.86 years for Hispanics
2.62 years for persons over age 85

Nursing Facilities (Certified by Medicaid only) 2,100
Skilled Nursing Facilities (certified by Medicare only) 600
SNF/NF (Certified by Medicare & Medicaid) 14,700
Other Facilities (Not certified) 500

I hope you find this information helpful.

From a viewer associated with the
National Citizens Coalition for Nursing Home Reform
202-332-2275
dokrent@nccnhr.org
http://www.ltcombudsman.org

"NCCNHR is a national, nonprofit membership organization founded in 1975 by Elma L. Holder to protect the rights, safety, and dignity of America's long-term care residents."

Here is another email that we at therubins received from another one of our viewers, Liz Schilling, Interim Librarian at the American Health Care Association.

Allan,
A big thank you to you and your brother, Harold, for helping me so quickly with locating information on yearly nursing home admissions.
After searching some more on the Web, I found information on nursing home admissions per year (1,537,000) in the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey atthe following site: http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/Puf/PufDetail.asp?ID=61. Of course, admissions include the people checking in, leaving for hospitalization, etc. and checking back into a nursing home (same one or different nursing home).
Thank you so much for your very kind help,
Liz Schilling, Interim Librarian
American Health Care Association
Washington, DC
202-898-2842

FOR AN INFORMATIVE AND PERSONAL ARTICLE ON PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS WHEN SELECTING A NURSING HOME SEE OUR ARTICLE "Selecting a Nursing Home"

Harold Rubin, MS, ABD, CRC, Guest Lecturer
June 23, 2008

http://therubins.com

To e-mail: hrubin12@nyc.rr.com or rubin@brainlink.com

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