CAMPAIGN TO ADVANCE EXCELLENE IN AMERICA'S NURSING HOMES

The Campaign to Advance Excellence in America’s Nursing Homes marked the launch of “Advancing Excellence in America’s Nursing Homes” an effort by a broad-based coalition of long-term care (LTC) providers, caregivers, medical and quality improvement experts, government agencies, and consumers.

Speaking at the campaign roll-out, Mark McClellan, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), called for eight measurable goals as objective measures of care to assess progress, with the first four goals focused on clinical measures already in place through the National Quality Forum (the other four goals are new and patient-centered):

                * Reducing high risk of pressure ulcers

               * Reducing the use of daily physical restraints

               * Improving pain management for longer term nursing home residents

               * Improving pain management for the short stay post-acute nursing home residents.