Bruce Y. Lee, Yeohan Song, Sarah M. Bartsch, Diane S. Kim, Ashima Singh, Taliser R. Avery, Shawn T. Brown, S. Levent Yilmaz, Kim F. Wong, Margaret A. Potter, Donald S. Burke, Richard Platt, Susan S. Huang

Acute care facilities are connected via patient sharing, forming a network. However, patient sharing extends beyond this immediate network to include sharing with long-term care facilities. The extent of long-term care facility patient sharing on the acute care facility network is unknown. The objective of this study was to characterize and determine the extent and pattern of patient transfers to, from, and between long-term care facilities on the network of acute care facilities in a large metropolitan county.