New tool identifies ways to improve 5-star quarterly rating

LeadingAge and LeadingAge New York are helping nursing homes analyze their Five-Star Quarterly ratings under the Nursing Home Compare data.

They teamed up to create a quarterly reporting tool to identify specific areas where nursing homes can improve resident care and increase their overall star rating from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

“While we don’t believe the CMS 5-Star system has yet been perfected to provide the most accurate scoring, we understand that it is the most-recognized system for assessing a nursing home,” said LeadingAge President and CEO Larry Minnix in a press release. “These new reports will help nursing homes better understand what criteria CMS is using when assigning a star rating, and then use that information to focus on improvement efforts.”

View a sample report.

LeadingAge created the reporting tool after CMS changed how it calculates ratings that caused nursing homes to see a drop in their ratings. The tool uses the most recent Nursing Home Compare dataset to provide comprehensive analysis on three main rating components:

• three previous health inspections,
• staffing hours per resident day and
• 11 quality measures rating.

An interactive staffing template allows a nursing home to input current Resource Utilization Groups (RUG) data and reported staffing hours to calculate “what-if” scenarios to assess the impact of changes to resident case mix and/or staffing hours as part of the staffing rating.

The reporting tool is part of the LeadingAge Insights program, a collection of free tools developed to help members improve their performance and competitiveness.

Related Story: GAO to conduct review of Nursing Home Compare tool

Nicole Stempak

Nicole was Senior Editor at I Advance Senior Care and Long Term Living Magazine 2015-2017. She has a Journalism degree from Kent State University and is finalizing a master’s degree in Information Architecture and Management. She has extensive studies in the digital user experience and in branding online media. She has worked as an editor and writer for various B2B publications, including Business Finance.