Long-term care patients taking up too many hospital beds in Hawaii
Patient Safety Monitor Alert
January 16, 2008
Hawaiian hospitals have been housing long-term care patients as the state deals with a shortage of long-term care facilities, reports the Honolulu Advertiser. This shortage has forced hospitals to give beds to an additional 275 patients on the busiest days. This has led to a loss of $90 million for Hawaiian hospitals annually because hospitals are reimbursed less for caring for long-term care patients than they are for acute-care patients.The lack of long-term care beds in the state stems from the high cost of land. The population of residents 65 and older in Hawaii is predicted to grow faster than that of the rest of the U.S.
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