Admission-related migration by older nursing home residents

Objective. To examine recent admissions of older adults to intermediate car e facilities in order to identify the factors associated with whether the i ndividual originated iii another county, a non-adjacent county and another stare. Methods. Employing a conceptual framework based upon migration theory and t he long-term care decision process and a data set derived from multiple sou rces, logistic regression was used to examine whether characteristics of th e county of residence prior to admission, the admission facility, and the i ndividual are significant net predictors of the three types of mobility. Se parate analyses were conducted for married and unmarried individuals. Results. The analytical models tended to have relatively good fit but only moderate predictive accuracy. In general, persons on Medicaid payment statu s were more likely to move to another county and to a non-adjacent county, whereas Medicaid payment was associated with a lower likelihood of migratin g to Virginia from another state. Individuals originating in counties with higher bed rates had lower rates of migration to another county and non-adj acent county. whereas those from counties with higher occupancy rates were more likely to leave their county of origin. Conclusion. Examination of factors associated with the distance and pattern s of nursing home mobility improves our understanding of the nursing home s election process and helps to illuminate the impact of public policy, marke t forces, and nursing home staff on who goes where to be admitted to a nurs ing home.