8 AUGUST - 2023IN MY OPINIONIN MY OPINIONIN MY OPINIONThe public health emergency (PHE) created by the COVID-19 virus has had a significant impact on healthcare systems and has made evident the important role that post-acute care providers have in the continuum of patient care. Many acute care hospitals have been overwhelmed with patient volumes and the need to care for medically complex patients during various pandemic stages. Moving patients to an appropriate post-acute care provider has been critical to acute care hospitals in managing the patient volume surges and for the continued care of survivors of acute COVID infection. Many of these survivors have continued neurological, cardiovascular, pulmonary, and psychosocial issues that require a multidisciplinary management approach in a post-acute care setting. Inpatient rehabilitation facilities/units (IRF/U's) are well-positioned to provide this level of care.Historically, skilled nursing facilities have comprised approximately 21% of acute hospital patient discharges to post-acute care. During the pandemic, these referral patterns have shifted with acute care discharges to skilled nursing facilities having a decrease of more than 6%. Many factors have contributed to this shift in referral patterns including the fear among patients to discharge to a skilled nursing facility. During the pandemic, many skilled nursing facilities were the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak with more than 200,000 deaths in nursing homes being contributed to COVID-19 in the first year of the PHE. Residents of skilled nursing facilities are often frail elderly adults with multiple comorbidities which make them susceptible to the COVID-19 virus and because of this many skilled nursing facilities have been reluctant to admit survivors of acute COVID-19 infection for concern that these patients would transmit the infection to other residents in their facilities. This shift in acute care discharge referral patterns away from skilled nursing facilities and the need for the continued care of medically complex post-COVID-19 The Effects of the COVID Pandemic on Post-Acute Discharge Patterns By Barbara Mohr, Vice President Operations, EnduraCare Acute Care Services, LLCpatients presented an opportunity for Inpatient rehabilitation facilities/units (IRF/U's) to increase their post-acute market share.While skilled nursing facilities and IRF/U's provide post-acute care to patients who have therapy needs there are some significant differences. An IRF/U level of care is in a hospital setting and patients admitted require an interdisciplinary care approach led by a physician. Patients admitted to an IRF/U also have intensive therapy needs which the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has defined as three hours of therapy a day, five days out of a week (known as the Barbara Mohr
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