Context Long-term acute care hospitals have emerged as a novel approach for the care of
patients recovering from severe acute illness, but the extent and increases in their activity at
the national level are unknown. Objective To examine temporal trends in long-term acute
care hospital utilization after an episode of critical illness among fee-for-service Medicare
beneficiaries aged 65 years or older. Design, Setting, and Patients Retrospective cohort
study using the Medicare Provider Analysis and Review files from 1997 to 2006. We …