Nearly half (45 percent) of cases in which a nursing homeresident is hospitalized are preventable.

That is one of the conclusions from a massive report releasedlast week by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS),eloquently titled, “Evaluation of the Initiative to ReduceAvoidable Hospitalizations among Nursing Home Residents.”

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The study was based on observations of 144 nursing carefacilities run by seven different Enhanced Care and CoordinationProviders (ECCPs) in seven different states in 2014.

Some of the nursing facilities were used as control groups,where nothing was changed, while others were subject to variousinterventions designed by each ECCP.

In every state observed, about 25-30 percent of all nursing homeresidents were hospitalized at one point. Similarly, in everystate, about 10-15 percent of residents were hospitalized for whatwas later determined to be a preventable event.

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While ECCPs were allowed to pioneer a variety of differentinterventions, they were given a general set of guidelines for whattheir policies should accomplish, including improving communicationbetween inpatient facilities and nursing homes about a resident’shealth information and devising a way to better monitor the drugsadministered to patients to prevent polypharmacy.

The good news, reports the CMS, is that the introduction ofthese new types of interventions succeeded in reducing bothMedicare spending and hospitalizations at all seven sites.

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CMS is touting the report as evidence that efforts to preventhospitalizations and reduce costs--including by tying reimbursement rates to the frequency withwhich patients are readmitted to a hospital after a surgery--do nothave to come at the expense of patient health.

Similarly, CMS is highlighting research that shows nursing homeprofessionals are prescribing fewer unnecessary antipsychotics toresidents.