title: Assessing quality of nursing home care: the foundation for improving resident outcomes.
abstract: Efforts to improve the quality of care and outcomes for nursing home residents are constantly of concern to state and federal regulators, nursing home providers, nursing home advocacy groups, and health policy researchers. The article describes a study that analyzed the quality indicators identified by the Health Care Financing Administration-sponsored Case Mix and Quality Demonstration Project using the Missouri nursing home Minimum Data Set database. The range of performance was considerable, and five of the indicators analyzed were risk adjusted to account for variation in resident acuity within facilities. Determining quality of care from assessment information that is routinely collected for nursing home residents has the potential to influence dramatically public policy decisions regarding reimbursement, recertification, and regulation and can play a vital role in improving resident outcomes.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, University Hospital Professor of Nursing, Columbia, Missouri, USA.
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Rantz
authors.forename: D R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Mehr
authors.forename: V S
authors.initials: VS
authors.lastname: Conn
authors.forename: L L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Hicks
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Porter
authors.forename: R W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Madsen
authors.forename: G F
authors.initials: GF
authors.lastname: Petrowski
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Maas
mesh_terms: D014487:Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S.; D006302:Health Services Research; D006801:Humans; D008923:Missouri; D009730:Nursing Assessment / Q000592:standards*; D015403:Nursing Evaluation Research; D009735:Nursing Homes / Q000592:standards*; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010347:Patient Care Planning / Q000592:standards*; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D014481:United States