Medicare does require that patients see a physician within 30 days of admission, but this protocol is outdated as it was implemented when patients were primarily there for the long haul and only needed custodial care.Currently, the average wait for a patient to see a physician is 3.2 days for urban areas, but in rural areas, this increases to an average of 8.1 days.
So, the issue is that patients are either not seeing physicians at all, or they are having to wait too long to see them, which naturally leads to poor medical outcomes.Statistically, nursing homes that employ advanced practice nurses (APRN) reduce hospitalizations.
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