Access the Final Report: National Voluntary Consensus Standards for Nursing Homes
The Opportunity
A core set of performance measures for chronic and post-acute care nursing facilities provides tools for regulators, purchasers, and consumers to evaluate the quality of care in these facilities, as well as metrics facilities can use to assess and improve the quality of care they provide. These measures evaluate the resident’s physical and clinical conditions and abilities, as well as preferences and life care wishes.
About the Project
The Nursing Home project began in December 2009. NQF implemented this project as a follow-up to the National Voluntary Consensus Standards for Nursing Home Care project completed in April 2004.
Objective
This NQF project sought to identify and endorse (outcome, process, and/or structural) measures and patient experience of care surveys that specifically address nursing home for public reporting and quality improvement. This project also provided maintenance to the current NQF-endorsed® nursing home measures.
Process
Candidate nursing home measures were considered for NQF endorsement as voluntary consensus standards. Agreement around the recommendations were developed through NQF’s formal Consensus Development Process (CDP). This project, like all NQF activities, involved the active participation of representatives from across the spectrum of healthcare stakeholders and was guided by a Steering Committee.
Funding
This project was supported under a contract with the Department of Health and Human Services.
Related NQF Work
National Voluntary Consensus Standards for Nursing Home Care (April 2004)
Contact Information
For further information, contact NQF at 202-783-1300 or via e-mail at performancemeasures@qualityforum.org.
NQF seeks to identify and endorse (outcome, process, and/or structural) measures and patient experience of care surveys that specifically address nursing home quality measures for public reporting and quality improvement. This project also will provide maintenance to the current NQF-endorsed® nursing home measures.
NQF issued a Call for Intent to submit candidate standards for Nursing Homes. Notices of intent closed on December 28, 2009. For additional information, see the full Call for Intent (PDF) document.
Table of Proposed Measures (PDF)
The Call for Nominations closed on February 23, 2010. For information on the Steering Committee formation process, please refer to the Call for Nominations document.
Call for Nominations (PDF)
The Call for Candidate Standards closed on March 19, 2010.
The Steering Committee met in person and by conference call to review the submitted measures.
The Nursing Homes Steering Committee met in person April 21-22, 2010. The meeting was open to NQF Members and the public.
The Steering Committee met via conference call on May 21, 2010.
The Steering Committee met via conference call on June 7, 2010.
CSAC met via conference call on December 9, 2010. In this meeting, the CSAC considered endorsement of the measures put forth by the Nursing Homes project.
The public had 30 days to appeal the final decision made to endorse 21 voluntary consensus standards. The appeals process closed on April 1, 2011. There were 13 appeals from four organizations filed during this time.
The CSAC reviewed the appeals in the April meeting. The NQF Board reviewed the CSAC's recommendations in late May and voted to uphold the endorsement of the measures.
