Reducing hospital admissions from a skilled nursing home.

With good nursing care and the resources of a dedicated skilled nursing facility, many nursing home patients usually admitted to a hospital for various medical illnesses can be handled within the framework of the skilled nursing facility without necessarily incurring an increased nursing home death rate. The medical advantage to the patient and to the usually overburdened hospitals, as well as the economic advantage to the public in general, calls for a full evaluation and consideration of this alternative to the regular and ongoing practice of hospital admissions of the elderly nursing home patient. The experiences of Carmel Richmond Nursing Home, a skilled nursing facility, have shown that this alternate level of approach and care can be quite successful and beneficial to all involved, especially the nursing home patient.