Nursing Home Compare
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What is the nursing home quality information?
Quality of care cannot be taken for granted. By law, nursing homes must collect and evaluate information about the quality of care their residents receive. Medicare has made this information available to help guide your decision-making process:
Resident's ability to move- Use of physical restraints
- Level of pain management
- Signs of pressure or bed sores
- Signs of delirium
- Signs of infections
- Improvement in walking
- Loss of ability in basic daily tasks
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Where can I find information about the quality of care in nursing homes in my area?
Information about the quality of care in nursing homes in your area is available on the Medicare website or by calling 1-800-MEDICARE.
- Go to "Compare Nursing Homes in Your Area" now!
- Go to "Compare Nursing Homes in Your Area" now!
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What other quality of care questions should I be asking?
This quality information is just one tool you can use during your decision-making process. Whether you are visiting a nursing home for the first time, you are a resident of a nursing home, or you have a loved one in a nursing home, there are other quality of care issues you should also consider such as:
- Are residents clean and properly dressed?
- Do staff respond quickly to calls for help?
- Do the administrator and staff seem comfortable with each other and with residents?
- Do residents have the same caregivers on a daily basis?
- Is there enough staff at night and on the weekends or holidays to care for each resident?
This Nursing Home Checklist
will show you what other things you should look for when choosing a nursing home. -
Why is KFMC working with nursing homes?
A leader in healthcare quality improvement, KFMC has worked with Kansas health providers such as hospitals and physician offices for 30 years. Now, we have expanded our quality improvement work to include Kansas nursing homes. In conjunction with Medicare's release of this quality information, KFMC is working closely with nursing homes to help them enhance the quality of care they provide to Medicare beneficiaries. At the same time, KFMC is working closely with Medicare beneficiaries to help them understand this information and how to use it when making decisions about nursing homes.
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What are the benefits for Kansans?
Designated as the Medicare Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) for Kansas, KFMC receives federal funding to work with Kansas health providers - hospitals, physician offices, nursing homes, and home health agencies - to improve the medical care they provide. The purpose is to:
- Improve the quality of care for beneficiaries by ensuring that care meets professionally recognized standards,
- Protect beneficiaries by expeditiously addressing individual cases such as consumer complaints, and
- Protect the integrity of the Medicare Trust Fund and the taxpayer dollars that fund it by ensuring that Medicare pays only for services and items that are reasonable and medically necessary and that are provided in an appropriate setting.
Our work ultimately improves medical care for all Kansans and ensures that Medicare will be available for future generations of Kansans.
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What are the benefits for nursing homes?
KFMC receives federal funding, so our quality improvement projects are free for Kansas nursing homes. Projects focus on care processes known to improve patient outcomes and specific preventive services. Improvement is based on how often these critical processes or services are performed or how often desired outcomes are achieved.
Nursing homes that choose to participate in the Nursing Home Quality Initiative (NHQI) will have opportunities to examine their practices and collaborate with other nursing homes to share information, enhance learning, and accelerate improvement. The project will focus on the the following quality information released by Medicare:
- Percentage of short stay residents with improvement in walking
- Percentage of residents with pressure ulcers
- Percentage of residents with loss of ability in basic daily tasks
- Percentage of residents with chronic pain
Nursing homes will receive education and intervention materials and information, technical assistance, and other support to help them improve care.
Fifty-seven Medicare and/or Medicaid certified nursing homes in Kansas have signe up to participate in this initiative as intensive group members. The initiative's statewide group is open to the rest of the state's 377 nursing homes.
Go to Compare Nursing Homes in Your Area now!
See also our Medicare Beneficiary Help page.