09/29/2023
By Hsien-Yuan Hsu

You are invited to join the AY23-24 UML Center for Health Statistics Seminar Series.

Date: Oct. 4
Time: Noon to 1 p.m.
Location: Coburn Hall 275

Title: Integrating medicare claims and survey data to examine the relationship between staffing and outcomes in assisted living

Speaker:
Cassandra Hua is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Health, University of Massachusetts Lowell. As a health services researcher and gerontologist, Hua’s research primarily focuses on identifying policies and practices that improve the quality of care for older adults in long-term care settings. Hua’s research integrates multiple unique sources of data, including administrative claims, survey data, and geographic data. Dr. Hua’s research has received support from the National Institute on Aging.

Abstract:
Over 32% of the individuals who reside in U.S. assisted living communities have dementia, and these residents are at high risk of injury. Many studies demonstrate that individuals have lower rates of injuries in nursing homes where nursing staff are present in sufficient numbers. No published studies to date have examined the relationship between changes in nursing staff levels in assisted living and injury-related emergency department use. One reason for the relatively few studies on assisted living staffing is the lack of national, longitudinal data on assisted living staffing levels. Currently, Ohio is the only state that collects staffing data longitudinally on assisted living communities. This study will demonstrate how our study team leveraged Ohio’s unique dataset of assisted living characteristics linked to Medicare claims data to explore the relationship between nursing staff levels and injury-related emergency department visits among assisted living residents with dementia.