Factors Associated with Timing of the Start-of-Care Nursing Visits in Home Health Care

Home health care patients have critical needs requiring timely care following hospital discharge. Although Medicare requires timely start-of-care nursing visits, a significant portion of home health care patients wait longer than 2 days for the first visit. No previous studies investigated the pattern of start-of-care visits or factors associated with their timing. This study's purpose was to examine variation in timing of start-of-care visits and characterize patients with visits later than 2 days postdischarge.