Clinical factors associated with recent medical care visits in nursing homes: a multi-site cross-sectional study

OBJECTIVES: We examined which resident-level clinical factors influence the provision of a recent medical care visit in nursing homes (NHs). DESIGN: Multi-site cross-sectional. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: We extracted data on 3,556 NH residents from 18 NH facilities in Ontario, Canada, who received at minimum, an admission and first-quarterly assessment with the Resident Assessment Instrument Minimum Data Set (MDS) 2.0 between November 1, 2009, and October 31, 2017. METHODS: We conducted a secondary analysis of routinely collected MDS 2.0 data. The provision of a recent medical care visit by a physician (or authorized clinician) was assessed in the 14-day period preceding a resident’s first-quarterly MDS 2.0 assessment. We utilized best-subset multivariable logistic regression to model the adjusted associations between resident-level clinical factors and a recent medical care visit. RESULTS: Two thousand eight hundred fifty nine (80.4%) NH residents had one or more medical care visits prior to their first-quarterly MDS 2.0 assessment. Six clinically relevant factors were identified to be associated with recent medical care visits in the final model: exhibiting wandering behaviours (OR = 1.34, 95% CI 1.09 – 1.63), presence of a pressure ulcer (OR = 1.37, 95% CI 1.05 – 1.78), a urinary tract infection (UTI) (OR = 1.52, 95% CI 1.06 – 2.18), end-stage disease (OR = 9.70, 95% CI 1.32 – 71.02), new medication use (OR = 1.31, 95% CI 1.09 – 1.57), and analgesic use (OR = 1.24, 95% CI 1.03 – 1.49). CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Our findings suggest that resident-level clinical factors drive the provision of medical care visits following NH admission. Clinical factors associated with medical care visits align with the minimum competencies expected of physicians in NH practice, including managing safety risks, infections, medications, and death. Ensuring that NH physicians have opportunities to acquire and strengthen these competencies may be transformative to meet the ongoing needs of NH residents. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12877-022-03011-9.