TAMPA, Fla., Dec. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- New data released from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) indicate nursing homes in Florida have improved the quality of care they provide to residents based on several key measures, Florida Medical Quality Assurance, Inc. (FMQAI) announced today.
Many of the improvements are the result of work nursing homes are undergoing with FMQAI, Medicare’s Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) in Florida, as part of the national Nursing Home Quality Initiative. FMQAI contracts with CMS to provide quality improvement resources to nursing homes, home health agencies, hospitals and physicians.
“Nursing homes have been working hard to improve their quality of care under the national Nursing Home Quality Initiative for over two years, and the recent data collected by CMS show that their efforts are paying off, benefiting Florida’s taxpayers and nursing home residents,” Logan Malone, Ed.D., FMQAI chief executive officer, said.
Malone noted that 10 percent of Florida’s nursing homes are working intensively with FMQAI to improve their measures for chronic pain, post acute pain, physical restraints and pressure sores. Intensive work includes hands- on training with quality experts, instruction in best practices, and sharing in-depth resources. Additionally, all nursing homes in Florida have received educational materials to help improve their quality of care.
Improvements have led to better quality of life for nursing home residents in many ways.
Cathedral Gerontology Center, Inc. in Jacksonville is in Florida’s intensive group and achieved 90.5 percent improvement for their chronic pain quality measure and 86.8 percent improvement for their post acute pain quality measure.
“By participating in this initiative, we have been successful in helping our pain care plans be more specific and interdisciplinary,” Kitty Ashton, R.N., B.S.N., B.A., Cathedral Gerontology Center staff development coordinator, said. “We recognized barriers that were hindering us from better managing our residents’ pain. Through a team approach, we developed additional staff education at all levels and internal processes to better serve our residents experiencing pain.”
Baldomero Lopez State Veterans’ Nursing Home in Land O’Lakes, an intensive group facility, improved their post acute pain quality measure 78.2 percent and their chronic pain quality measure 76.8 percent.
“This initiative has allowed us to identify areas we could improve on,” Rebecca Yackel, R.N., Baldomero Lopez administrator, said. “We worked really hard on the pain measures and are excited about the progress we’ve experienced.”
Baldomero Lopez recently received the State of Florida’s Davis Productivity Award and Gold Seal Award, and attributes these achievements to their involvement in CMS’s initiative.
“Our staff and residents have benefited from the resources made available by the Nursing Home Quality Initiative and it’s had a direct result on the care we provide,” added Yackel.
Baseline data were taken from the measurement period ending June 30, 2002. In comparison, the most recent data available through the measurement period ending June 30, 2004 show significant improvements assessed by CMS. Florida’s intensive group achieved 48.5 percent improvement for the chronic pain quality measure and 23.3 percent improvement for the post acute pain quality measure during the measurement period.
“We commend the nursing homes for their success, and we thank our partners at Florida Health Care Association and Florida Association of Homes for the Aging for their support of the Nursing Home Quality Initiative,” added Malone. “And we recognize that there is more work to be done. Currently the state average for the physical restraints quality measure is slightly above the national average, although data shows this measure has steadily improved and we expect it to continue for the rest of the initiative.”
CMS recently released a comprehensive plan to accelerate the pace of quality improvement in nursing homes around the country. One component of this plan is a more coordinated approach to linking the work of state Survey Agencies and QIOs. In Florida, FMQAI has been working with Agency for Health Care Administration to develop ways to make each other more successful in their shared mission to improve nursing home quality.
The national Nursing Home Quality Initiative was launched in 2002 by CMS, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to improve the quality of nursing home care across the nation. The program is part of a national Quality Initiative that also focuses on improving the quality of care delivered by home health agencies and hospitals.
Seniors, caregivers and others can find valuable information about nursing homes by visiting http://www.medicare.gov/ and clicking on Compare Nursing Homes in Your Area. The site also provides tips for making informed decisions about health care. People without Internet access may call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227) for assistance.
Florida Medical Quality Assurance, Inc. (FMQAI), a subsidiary of Health Services Advisory Group, is Florida’s Medicare quality improvement organization (QIO) and End Stage Renal Disease Network. FMQAI is federally funded and under contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, a federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. As the Florida QIO, FMQAI is responsible for improving the care provided to Medicare beneficiaries by working with Medicare providers on quality improvement projects.
Florida Medical Quality Assurance, Inc.
CONTACT: David Ruscitti of Florida Medical Quality Assurance, Inc.,+1-813-865-3255, or druscitti@flqio.sdps.org; or Sharon Fisher, Division ofMedicare Operations, CMS Region IV, +1-404-562-7377, or sfisher@cms.hhs.gov