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New Nursing Home Quality Measurements

August 1, 2016

The federal government has announced six new measurements for its system of comparing the quality of care patients receive at nursing homes.

Nursing-home-photoAnyone interested in information about the quality of a nursing home can go to Medicare's website and use the Nursing Home Compare system to look up detailed information about the nursing home, including whether it has received any penalties. A five star rating system makes it easy to quickly compare different nursing homes against each other.

Of course, the ratings are only as good as the information that goes into making them.

McKnight's reports that the government will soon be adding six new measurements to the ratings in "6 new quality measures coming to Nursing Home Compare, Five-Star rating system."

The new measurements include:

  • Percentage of people staying less than 100 days who had an emergency room visit.
  • Percentage of short stays who were sent home and not soon thereafter readmitted to another nursing home or hospital and who did not die within 30 days.
  • Percentage of short stays who were hospitalized after admission.
  • Percentage of short stays whose physical functioning and locomotion improved.
  • Percentage of residents of over 100 days whose independent movement got worse.
  • Percentage of long stays who were prescribed hypnotic or anti-anxiety medication.

The first five measurements will be phased into the ratings over the next nine months.

Reference: McKnight's (March 4, 2016) "6 new quality measures coming to Nursing Home Compare, Five-Star rating system."