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Making Sense of Medicare: Medicare Expands Program to Improve Nursing Home QualityBy Pam Negri Public Affairs Specialist Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Region 10 Selecting a nursing home for you or a loved one may just have become easier. All too often, decisions about which nursing home to choose are made under difficult circumstances without a lot of information about the quality of care in a particular facility. Now consumers in every state have a wealth of information available at their fingertips about the quality of care in Medicare and Medicaid certified nursing homes. The Nursing Home Quality Initiative, launched by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, provides data designed to help consumers across the United States make more educated decisions when selecting a nursing home. Caregivers can obtain copies of state nursing home inspection reports, review staffing and affordability information, and compare newly released quality measures such as a nursing home´s prevalence of bedsores, pain, physical restraints, and infections among their resident population. Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs) like Qualis Health, which serves Washington, Idaho, and Alaska, and OMPRO, which serves Oregon, are contracted with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to collect and publish data to help consumers make decisions about nursing homes. Another key component of the quality initiative is the information and consultation that QIOs will offer skilled nursing homes in every state to improve the quality of patient care. The seven-month pilot project confirmed that targeted quality improvement initiatives do indeed improve the quality of care. One of the major indicators of quality evaluated was pain management. Did the pilot result in any changes that eased the pain of residents? In Washington state, for example, significant improvements were noted in several nursing homes which worked with Qualis Health: Tacoma Lutheran Home, Parkway Nursing Home in Snohomish, Everett Rehabilitation and Care Center, and Cascade Vista Convalescent Center in Redmond. Using the Nursing Home Compare tool on www.medicare.gov , or by calling 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227), consumers will be able to compare specific nursing homes to others in the community or nation on 10 different quality measures. The measures fall into two categories - six for chronic care patients (long-term residents) and four for post-acute care patients (short-term residents). Among the measures are percent of residents: Who need more help doing daily activities. Who have pain. Who have bedsores. We recommend that these quality measures should be one tool among many that consumers use. Checking with state and local ombudsman offices, visiting the nursing homes, and reading the publication, A Guide to Choosing a Nursing Home, are also good tools to use when looking for a nursing home for yourself, a family member, or friend. The quality data, publication, and findings from yearly on-site inspections and complaint investigations by State Survey Agencies are available at Medicare´s consumer friendly Web site www.medicare.gov or by calling the 24-hour help line, 1-800-MEDICARE. Here are some Senior Numbers
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