Quality in Nursing Home Care from the National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Reports (NHQR-DR)

Method:  Data was obtained from the NHQR-DR database; stratified by race, ethnicity, and sex.  The significant differences between populations for years 2000 to 2010 and trends over time (at least 3 data years and from third quarter of each calendar year) were those with a minimum relative difference of 10 percent between the comparison and reference group, with p <0.05 in two-tailed significance tests.

Findings: 

2000-2010

-Male long-stay residents who reported pain decreased (9.1% to 5.9%); no changes in race, ethnicity, and females.

-Pressure ulcers in long-stay, high-risk residents decreased (13.9% to 10.4%) regardless of race, ethnicity, and sex. Short-stay residents decreased (22.6% to 17%) except American Indian/or Alaska Natives and males.

-Long-stay residents weight loss decreased (10.1% to 7.7%); regardless of race, ethnicity, and sex.

-Urinary tract infections in long-stay residents worsened for: Hispanics (6.0% to 7.4%); females (7.8% to 9.5%); and Blacks (5.8% to 6.7%). 

-The need for physical restraints in long-stay residents decreased (10.4% to 2.4%) regardless of race, ethnicity, and sex.

-Low-risk long-stay female residents were more likely to lose control of the bowels or bladder (45.6% to 54.2%).  No change in race, ethnicity, and males.

2006-2010

-Pneumococcal vaccinations increased for long-stay (72% to 87.4%) and short-stay (64.4% to 82%) residents regardless of race, ethnicity, and sex.

Conclusion

Improvements…yes…but at a slow pace.  National trends for benchmarking along with reliable and timely data need to be at the forefront for future policies.