According to the National Center for Assisted Living, 59% of all assisted living residents will eventually move to a skilled nursing facility. Overall, the average stay in a nursing home is 835 days, according to the National Care Planning Council. For residents who have been discharged, including those who received short-term rehabilitation care, the average stay in a nursing home is 270 days, or 8.9 months. In the past, the national average was around two years.
Today, the national average is approaching one year. An LTACH specializes in treating patients who need to stay in the hospital for an extended period of time. An LTACH is a hospital with an average length of stay of more than 25 days. As evaluated by the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
LTAH are also used to care for patients who receive long-term mechanical ventilation. In short, it's not uncommon for a person to receive home care for several months or more, followed by a two-and-a-half year stay in an assisted living facility, and nearly 60% require a nursing home stay of between nine months and just over two years. The law requires nursing homes, home health agencies and HMOs to provide patients with advance directive information. A nursing home is a facility that provides similar medical and life-support care, but will be the patient's permanent home.
The most important distinction between a skilled nursing facility and a nursing home is the level of medical care required and the length of stay. According to the CDC, about 1.7 million people live in one of the country's 15,000 nursing homes in any given year. Nursing homes are approved healthcare apartments for people who need more medical care than an assisted living facility can provide. For example, while women tend to stay longer in nursing homes and assisted living facilities, they are more likely to be discharged to a home solution than men, who are more likely to move to another facility or to spousal care, if available.
