Quality Measures

Under-reporting Pressure Injuries

Nursing Home Reporting published research proving the inaccuracy of quality measures on Nursing Home Compare. This is awful. Consumers want and need Nursing Home Compare to choose a safe place for their loved one. But the information is not accurate.

The information is self-reported and not verified for accuracy and completeness. Integra Med Analytics compared hospital and nursing home data on nursing home patients for quality measures.  They measured for pressure ulcers, UTIs and falls. The measures are self-reported based on the Minimum Data Set. Of course, nursing homes have a financial incentive to hide quality problems and cover-up neglect.

The rate of self-reported pressure ulcers at a given facility is substantially lower than the hospital data of patients admitted from the facility. Nursing homes do not accurately disclose or report pressure injuries. A detailed explanation of the methodology is found on their methodology page.

“The median ratio of the self-reported and hospital-based pressure ulcer rates was 0.48, indicating that over half of SNFs under-reported by at least a factor of two (Figure 1). This is actually a conservative measure of under-reporting; the hospital data only included patients that were re-admitted to the hospital in the numerator and any SNF patients with pressure ulcers that were not re-admitted to the hospital weren’t counted.”

Public access

The quality metrics calculated in the research are publicly available. The information is on their website for every Medicare-certified skilled nursing facility. In addition, the additional metrics including staffing levels, incidents of abuse and neglect, and prior risk of excessive treatment are available for the public.

Hopefully, CMS will increase transparency and disclosure so consumers know which facility is safe for their loved one. Please let us know if we can help. We are familiar with all the long term care facilities in Spartanburg and the rest of South Carolina. We are here to help.