How Post-Acute Care Impacts Outcomes

3 Things to Know

Louisiana ranks highest in the United States for per-capita post-acute care spending, and its readmission rates rank 48th. The post-acute care continuum reflects the various levels of care following a hospital discharge––home health, skilled nursing facilities, inpatient rehabilitation facilities, long-term acute care hospitals, palliative care and hospice.

And Susan Nelson, MD, Medical Director of Palliative Medicine and Supportive Care, emphasizes, “If we don’t rein in our post-acute care discharge planning, we are missing vital opportunities to improve overall value for our patients.”

As Ochsner Health Network physicians, you now have post-acute care resources at your fingertips to reverse Louisiana’s alarming trends—aligning patients with the right level of care, in the right setting and at the right time. Here are three things to know:

1.    Not all post-acute care providers meet our network standards and metrics for quality, safety and customer experience.

Here are 200 approved post-acute providers - home health, inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and longer term acute care hospitals throughout Louisiana and Mississippi, selected to become part of Ochsner Health Network. Click on your regional list and share with your teams in both inpatient and outpatient settings. And when it comes to facilitating informed choice for Medicare patients, case managers and care coordinators can access these top-performing facilities through Ochsner’s instance of CarePort Guide.

Post-Acute Provider List – All Network Providers

Post-Acute Provider Lists by Region:

• Acadiana
• Baton Rouge
• Central LA
• Central MS
• Coastal MS
• New Orleans
• North LA
• North MS
• North Shore East
• North Shore West
• South Central LA
• Southwest LA

2.    The network’s post-acute program has reduced the overall Skilled Nursing length of stay by 5.7 days and saved more than $2.9 million in healthcare expenditures in 2022. Request a post-acute utilization consult for your practice and reach out to collaborate with our post-acute utilization management team, led by Kari Mashon, by calling 985-898-7201.

3.    If you are on Ochsner's instance of Epic, new and improved hospice and palliative care order sets are coming soon! The updated orders aim to improve clinicians’ ease of use for clinic-based and home-based palliative care, as well as hospice referrals.

Article acknowledgements:

Thank you to OHN physicians who contributed their time and expertise to this article.

Susan E. Nelson, MD
‍Geriatric Medicine