A simplified score for transfer of patients requiring mechanical ventilation to a long-term care hospital

Long-term care hospitals are Medicare providers of postacute care that have a mean length of stay of 25 days or more. Early identification and timely transfer of patients requiring mechanical ventilation to such hospitals may improve the efficiency of inpatient care. To develop a predictive model and a simplified score for use on day 7 of hospitalization to assess whether a patient receiving mechanical ventilation is likely to require an additional 25 days of hospitalization (ie, would qualify for transfer to a long-term care hospital). A retrospective, cross-sectional study using hospital discharge and billing data from the 2005 Nationwide Inpatient Sample for 54 686 Medicare beneficiaries admitted to US community hospitals who met the study's eligibility criteria. The outcome was overall length of stay (≥32 vs