A new study, published in Medical Care, found that pressure ulcers were substantially underreported in data used by Nursing Home Compare to measure patient safety.
Alternative approaches are needed to improve surveillance of health care quality in nursing homes. The study assessed the accuracy of Nursing Home Compare’s pressure ulcer measures, which are chief indicators of nursing home patient safety. For the study, researchers reviewed Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries who were nursing home residents between 2011 and 2017, and identified hospital admissions for pressure ulcers and linked these to the nursing home-reported data at the patient level.
Based on the findings, the study authors recommend that alternative approaches are needed to improve surveillance of health care quality in nursing homes.
Read more:
- Accuracy of Pressure Ulcer Events in US Nursing Home Ratings. Medical Care. August 4, 2022.