Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) play a vital role in delivering post-acute care through their swing bed programs, offering a seamless care transition for patients recovering from surgeries, illnesses, injuries, or chronic condition flare-ups. These programs are uniquely positioned to deliver personalized, interdisciplinary care, often with better outcomes than traditional Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNFs).
Compared to SNFs, CAH-based swing bed programs typically achieve:
- Shorter average lengths of stay
- Lower readmission rates during swing bed stays
- Fewer 30-day hospital readmissions post-discharge
Elevate Performance with Data-Driven Insights
To support CAHs in measuring and improving quality of care, Stroudwater offers a national Swing Bed Quality Reporting Program. This program enables CAHs to benchmark key outcomes and identify opportunities for growth and excellence in swing bed performance.
Through standardized patient-level data collection, the program allows CAHs to:
- Benchmark clinical outcomes with peer CAHs, SNFs, and PPS hospitals
- Demonstrate program effectiveness to referral partners, patients and the community
- Identify actionable opportunities for improvement and program growth
CAHs that can clearly show the quality and effectiveness of their swing bed care are better positioned to increase referrals and fill available beds, beds that might otherwise go unused. Multiple case studies have shown that increased swing bed volume growth leads to improved financial performance and greater sustainability for the hospital.
What Gets Measured Improves
The program tracks several key quality indicators:
- Return to Acute Care from Swing Bed (lower is better)
- 30-Day Readmission Post-Discharge (lower is better)
- Improvement in Mobility and Self-Care (higher is better)
- Discharge to Community (higher is better)
Additionally, the Swing Bed Gap Analysis allows hospitals to optimize their swing bed program and evaluate the use of available resources. The Swing Bed Gap Analysis helps identify gaps and opportunities in swing bed programs and staff competencies and offers a marketing flyer to help hospitals build their swing bed volumes.
Get Involved. Improve Outcomes. Elevate Care.
Whether you’re focused on improving mobility outcomes, reducing readmissions, or simply delivering the best possible patient care, the Swing Bed Quality Reporting Program and Swing Bed Gap Analysis is your foundation for informed decision-making and continuous improvement.
