For those policy wonks out there looking for resources to support your work here is a phenomenal publication that you need to be familiar with. The National Study of Long-Term Care Providers is sponsored by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics. Data, information and analysis is presented in an integration fashion that is designed to monitor trends in paid, regulated long-term care.

Five sectors are included:

Adult day service centers and participants
Home health agencies and patients
Hospices and patients
Nursing homes and residents
Residential care communities and residents

The main goals of the study are to:

Estimate the supply and use of paid, regulated long-term care services
Estimate key policy-relevant characteristics of providers and users, and practices of providers
Produce national and state-level estimates, where possible
Make comparisons within and between sectors
Examine trends over time

And not just policy wonks will benefit from the depth of knowledge and information provided by this initiative. Those in the senior housing and post-acute/long-term care business will benefit by having insights and understanding of utilization patterns, disease incidence, clinical and operational characteristics – across provider types. As the industry transcends away from its silo-based legacy toward the integration of community support, services and care across organizations having an understanding of how these provider types can work together to provide greater value will be a fundamental requirement to economic survival.

Cheers,
  ~ Sparky