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Nursing Home Quality, Cost, Staffing, and Staff-Mix |
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The purpose of this study was to describe the processes of care, organizational attributes, cost of care, staffing level, and staff mix in a sample of Missouri homes with good, average, and poor resident outcomes.
In facilities with good resident outcomes, there are basics of care and processes surrounding each that staff consistently do: helping residents with ambulation, nutrition and hydration, and toileting and bowel regularity; preventing skin breakdown; and managing pain. For nursing homes to achieve good resident outcomes, they must have leadership that is willing to embrace quality improvement and group process and see that the basics of care delivery are done for residents. Good quality care may not cost more than poor quality care; there is some evidence that good quality care may cost less. Small facilities of 60 beds were more likely to have good resident outcomes. Strategies have to be considered so larger facilities can be organized into smaller clusters of units that could function as small nursing homes within the larger whole. Key Words: nursing homes; quality of care; quality indicators; quality measurement; Minimum Data Set (MDS); costs of care; staffing; staff mix; registered nurse staffing Rantz, M.J., Hicks, L., Grando, V.T., Petroski, G.F., Madsen, R.W., Mehr, D.R., Conn, V., Zwygart-Stauffacher, M., Scott, J., Flesner, M., Bostick, J., Porter, R., & Mass, M. (2004). Nursing Home Quality, Cost, Staffing, and Staff-Mix. The Gerontologist, 44(1): 24-38. |