Nursing staff levels and other measures will soon be translated into a five-star rating system for nursing homes by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, although it is not yet clear how the data will be translated into ratings. CMS is soliciting input into the process during June and July.
In a June 18 press release, CMS called the planned system “ground-breaking,” noting that this is the first time it has ever offered a rating system for any Medicare-funded providers. The agency says the ratings are intended to help residents and their families make “meaningful distinctions between high performing and low performing homes.” The ratings will be posted on the agency’s Nursing Home Compare Web site by the end of this year.
The only nursing staff measure currently on Nursing Home Compare is the number of hours per resident per day. CMS comes up with that estimate by using self-reported data from the homes, calculating the total number of nursing staff per resident day as well as RN, LPN/LVN, and CNA hours per resident day.
But it’s hard to know what to make of those figures with no information about the special needs and acuity levels of each home’s residents – and no way to check on the accuracy of the data to begin with. What’s more, there are no federal minimum nursing staff levels to compare the results to, although some states have their own staffing requirements.
According to an article in McKnight’s Long-Term Care News & Assisted Living, CMS Acting Administrator Kerry Weems told participants in a conference call today that the ratings are “definitely going to happen,” but that the data used and how those data are weighted is “up for discussion.”
Weems said the main data used are likely to be state survey results, information on 19 quality measures, and staffing data, but added that other information may be considered. He encouraged nursing home advocates, consumers and others to weigh in on the criteria and suggest other measures.
Click here for a sample screen shot of the proposed ratings.
Visit the CMS Hot Topics webpage for more information about the quality rating system and its progress (available after June 22) and for details on a national conference call on the proposed five-star system to be held on June 24.
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Elise Nakhnikian, Senior Online Editor
enakhnikian@phinational.org
I think it is about time for someone to be concerned about staff ratios in nursing homes.To often these ratios are to high which compromises the quality of care that cna’s can give to each resident. Our elderly deserve to receive the best care possible and this cannot be accomplished when one cna has 8 to 10 people to care for.I firmly believe the ratio should be set at 5 residents to 1 cna.
I am ecstatic about the upcoming measures to post nursing home ratings. I believe that basing the ratings on the current state survey results is an excellent way to begin. As part of the Better Jobs/Better Care NC quality improvement movement; a Coaching Supervision Instructor, I hope that all state movements to better the care of our elderly will be considered in the ratings.
I am an educator of Nurse Aides in the community college system.Our training is very precise and quality ensured but based on an ideal care setting. The student to patient care ratio is drastically different than what their future jobs will demand. Our privately funded grants to examine the reason for the low retention of Nurse aides in NC revealed one reason being the mental stress the Nurse Aide incurs as she tries to give quality care to a greater number of patience than she can care for as she was trained. The greater stress revealed emenated from the core reason the nurse aide chose care giving – to care for others. In the Nursing Home environment this core reason is challenged daily.
I hope that the institution of staff ratios based on acuity levels is mandated and the “Magnet Status”Nursing Home evolves.
Thank you for this web page.
Dottie Bement