 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
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| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Charlene Harrington, PhD, Department of Social & Behavioral Sciences, University of California San Francisco, 3333 California St, Suite 455, San Francisco, CA 94143-0612, (415) 476-4030, chas@itsa.ucsf.edu, Janis O'Meara, MPH, UCSF, 3333 California Street, Suite 455, San Francisco, CA 94118, Eric Collier, MS, Department of Social & Behavioral Sciences, UC San Francsico, 3333 California Street, Suite 455, San Francisco, CA 94118, Lisa Payne Simon, MPH, California Health Care Foundation, 476 Ninth Street, Oakland, CA 94067, and John F. Schnelle, PhD, UCLA, 7150 Tampa Ave./JHA, Borun Center, Reseda, CA 91335.
California Nursing Home Search (www.Calnhs.org) is a web-based system that provides a comprehensive comparative data from federal and state public data sources about nursing facility (NF) quality. Baseline statistics were compiled on all nursing homes on: staffing levels and types; employee turnover rates; complaints and deficiencies, quality performance indicators, and financial indicators. This paper reports on comparative quality indicator statistics for all nursing facilities one year after the launch. Staffing levels improved from 44 percent of facilities not meeting state staffing requirements, but the majority of facilities still did not meet staffing goals. Staff turnover rates remained high and wages and benefits low when compared with competitive jobs. The percent of residents that had weight loss, were bedfast, and were in restraints were high and the percent of facilities with serious deficiencies and complaint citations remained high. For-profit, chain, and free-standing facilities had lower staffing levels and higher deficiencies than non-profits, non-chains, and hospital based facilities. Medicaid reimbursement rates were low relative to other states and 37 percent of facilities had negative profit margins. The state Medicaid program has threatened a 15 percent cut in nursing home rates, which could further exacerbate the poor overall quality and financial indicators. Policy options are considered to make improvements in quality outcomes. Participants should be able to: identify key quality indicators and basic areas of poor performance, identify changes in quality and financial indicators over a one year period, and consider key policy areas that could be addressed to make improvements.
Learning Objectives:
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: Author's research is funded, in part, by a grant for the California Healthcare Foundation