Several updates to Nursing Home Compare are noted below:
Long-Stay Hospitalization Quality Measure
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) continues to focus on reducing hospitalizations to improve the health and safety of nursing home residents. Over the last several years, CMS has launched initiatives aimed at reducing hospitalizations. CMS will begin posting rates of hospitalizations of long-stay residents to the Nursing Home Compare website as a long-stay quality measure in October of 2018.
Individual facilities will have the opportunity to see their data this month [July 2018] in the confidential “Nursing Home Compare Five-Star Ratings of Nursing Homes Provider Rating Report.” In the spring of 2019, this quality measure will be included in the Five-Star Quality Rating System.
Payroll-Based Journal Data
In 2017, CMS began posting the number of hours worked by nursing staff submitted through the Payroll-Based Journal (PBJ) system on data.cms.gov. To increase transparency, CMS will begin posting the number of hours worked by other staff (i.e., non-nursing staff) this month. Facilities are required to submit hours for all other staff as required. CMS will also distinguish between hours submitted for direct employees and contract staff.
Health Inspection Rating Freeze
In February 2018, CMS implemented a temporary “freeze” of the health inspection domain of the Nursing Home Five-Star Quality Rating System by holding each facility’s health inspection rating constant for approximately one year. During the freeze, inspections conducted after November 28, 2017, are not included in facility’s star ratings calculation. In October 2019, CMS will resume posting the average number of citations per inspection for each state and nationally.