Pre-procedural nursing home length of stay and outcomes of transcatheter aortic valve replacement.

Background: Older adults with severe aortic stenosis (AS) may receive care in a nursing home (NH) prior to undergoing transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). NH level of care can be used to stabilize medical conditions, to provide rehabilitation services, or for long-term care services. Our primary objective is to determine whether NH utilization pre-TAVR can be used to stratify patients at risk for higher mortality and poor disposition outcomes at 30 and 365 days post-TAVR.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study among Medicare beneficiaries who spent ≥1 day in an NH 6 months before TAVR (2011-2019). The intensity of NH utilization was categorized as low users (1-30 days), medium users (31-89 days), long-stay NH residents (≥ 100 days, with no more than a 10-day gap in care), and high post-acute rehabilitation patients (≥90 days, with more than a 10-day gap in care). The probabilities of death and disposition were estimated using multinomial logistic regression, adjusting for age, sex, and race.

Results: Among 15,581 patients, 9908 (63.6%) were low users, 4312 (27.7%) were medium users, 663 (4.3%) were high post-acute care rehab users, and 698 (4.4%) were long-stay NH residents before TAVR. High post-acute care rehabilitation patients were more likely to have dementia, weight loss, falls, and extensive dependence of activities of daily living (ADLs) as compared with low NH users. Mortality was the greatest in high post-acute care rehab users: 5.5% at 30 days, and 36.4% at 365 days. In contrast, low NH users had similar mortality rates compared with long-stay NH residents: 4.8% versus 4.8% at 30 days, and 24.9% versus 27.0% at 365 days.

Conclusion: Frequent bouts of post-acute rehabilitation before TAVR were associated with adverse outcomes, yet this metric may be helpful to determine which patients with severe AS could benefit from palliative and geriatric services.