Nursing Home Compare Tool

The AARP just posted an article by Dr. Carolyn Clancy advising us about a helpful new tool for caregiver planning. Here is the article:

In January the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services unveiled a new tool called Nursing Home Compare (see this link)

http://www.medicare.gov/NHCompare/Include/DataSection/Questions/ProximitySearch.asp?bhcp=1

You can use this tool to look up nursing homes in your area by name, city, county, state or ZIP code.

The tool provides information on nursing homes that have been approved to take patients insured by Medicare and Medicaid. It assigns ratings to nursing homes based on reviews of how many and what type of staff members they have, how well the homes perform on health inspections and how they rank on quality measures.

Each nursing home is given a star rating (from one to five) for its performance on each of these three elements. These ratings are then combined into an overall rating.

This new rating system is based on a 20-year-old law that reformed how nursing homes provide care. It also reflects more recent quality improvement efforts led by consumers, health providers and nursing home experts.

Overall, the new tool gives consumers a snapshot of the care that individual nursing homes provide. It also gives consumers the background to ask more informed questions before they decide on a facility.

I must note, however, that Nursing Home Compare can’t answer all your questions. It cannot tell how things may have changed—for better or worse—once a nursing home was given its rating.

The best way to get a complete picture of a nursing home is to visit it in person. Ask questions of the people who take care of residents, not just those who work in the front office.

You will be able to ask more informed questions after you review the data that go into Nursing Home Compare’s rating system, including:

• Health Inspection Results: Major aspects of nursing home care are included in this measure. Trained people conduct the health inspections by visiting each nursing home, checking medical records and talking to patients. Even though inspection standards are the same from state to state, there are differences in how visits are carried out. That’s why it’s a good idea to compare nursing homes within the same state to get more accurate information.

• Staffing Levels: This measure looks at the overall number of personnel compared to the number of residents. However, staffing levels are more than just numbers—they also include the percentage of trained nurses and other personnel. Nursing homes collect and report this information once a year, so the data may not always be accurate or current. Keep in mind that quality is generally better in facilities with larger staffs that work directly with residents. Make sure you ask about what kind of and how large a staff a nursing home has.

• Quality Measures: Ten important elements of quality of care are covered in the rating system. They include how well the nursing home prevents and treats bedsores and helps people maintain key living skills, such as eating and dressing. Like the staffing data, these data are reported by the nursing home, not by an independent agency.

To get a fuller picture of the quality of care at a nursing home you may be considering, ask the staff about these elements and about other steps they take to improve residents’ care.

The Nursing Home Compare website includes a checklist to use when you visit a nursing home. It also provides links to other resources that can help you know what to look for when deciding on a facility. In the near future, the website will add a section that gives consumers’ perspectives on nursing home quality of care.

As we get more data to help us make decisions about nursing home quality, it’s up to us to put that information to good use. Data alone aren’t enough to arrive at decision, but they are a step in the right direction. A personal visit at which you ask informed questions builds on this foundation.