To improve the quality of care in nursing homes for the 1.4 million Americans who currently reside in facilities across the country, the National Quality Forum (NQF) has endorsed 21 measures to be used to care for both long-term residents and short-stay patients. The NQF-endorsed measures will be used in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Nursing Home Compare, an online database for consumers to compare the care provided in more than 17,000 nursing homes across the country.
In 2004, NQF endorsed an initial set of measures for publicly reporting care in nursing homes. With the completion of the current project, the 17 measures that were previously endorsed will be retired and, in some instances, replaced by the newly endorsed measures. These measures were recently retired in the transition to CMS’ updated data collection instrument, the Minimum Data Set 3.0 (MDS 3.0).
The 21 NQF-endorsed nursing home measures assess patient outcomes and the patient’s own experience of care for both long-term residents and short-stay patients. The measures address falls, infections, pressure ulcers, and the general health of residents and patient.