FOREWORD

The ever-increasing concern over providing care for our aging population, the demand for additional nursing home beds of good quality and the general inadequacy of public assistance payments for nursing home care have created a need for more information on the costs of operating homes offering varying levels of service. At the National Conference on Nursing Homes and Homes for the Aged, held in February 1958 in Washington, D. C., the Section on Financing of Facilities and Services recommended:

"... that the Public Health Service collect and
publish good cost data that are presently available
concerning the operation of nursing homes and homes
for the aged separated by geographic area, and further
subdivided to show various levels of service."

In January 1959, the Division of Hospital and Medical Facilities issued a preliminary bibliography on the Costs of Operating Nursing Homes and Related Facilities. Continuing requests for that report and the increasing number of studies in this area led to the present revised publication.

The data included in this report relate to costs of providing care rather than charges for care. Whenever possible, the annotations cite departmental costs. In addition, the revised bibliography includes two new sections. The first gives references on accounting records for nursing homes and related facilities. The second includes references giving general background information on the characteristics of the residents and manuals on hospital accounting that may be adapted for use by these facilities.

It is hoped that this bibliography will be helpful to the administrators of nursing homes and related facilities, State agencies responsible for the planning, construction and licensure of nursing homes, public assistance agencies and the many persons concerned with the costs of providing care to our aged.

May 1960

Jord C Haldeman

Jack C. Haldeman, M. D.
Assistant Surgeon General
Chief, Division of Hospital
and Medical Facilities

COSTS

OF OPERATING NURSING HOMES

AND RELATED FACILITIES

Summary Data On Costs

The accompanying summary table highlights the general range in costs among facilities in the four categories included in this bibliography: nursing homes, nonprofit homes for the aged, public facilities, and boarding homes. It gives the specific bibliographical reference, geographic location of the facilities studied, the type and size of institution, date of the respective data and the average cost per resident day.

In using the data on cost per resident day, the following

The scope and date of the study should also be carefully noted.