Special care units for Alzheimer's patients: their role in the nursing home market.

The Special Care Unit (SCU) is a new, rapidly proliferating mode of caring for people with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Approximately 10% of nursing homes within the U.S. have SCUs with the number expected to grow substantially in coming years. SCUs are largely unregulated and not uncontroversial. This article discusses their emergence over time, their origins, growth, and the call for standardization. Subsequent sections review the range of potential benefits and costs associated with SCUs, optimally defined as well as research evidence available on this mode of care. Recent cost-setting and reform pressures in the nursing home industry are discussed in the final sections along with the likely future of AD SCUs in this environment.