Culture change potentially affects quality without a detrimental effect on cost
Posted by Patti on June 18th, 2007 / Print This Post
This doesn’t surprise me at all.
ROCHESTER, N.Y. /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — A new study introduced today supports the nursing home culture change movement, spearheaded nationally by The Pioneer Network. Dr. Bonnie Kantor, Executive Director, delivered findings at the Second Annual Medicaid Congress. The study suggests that culture change potentially affects quality without a detrimental effect on cost.
So why aren’t more nursing homes embracing this? I suspect its all about power and control. And the fear of letting these things go.
The study used participation in the network as the treatment variable to assess any differences in quality of care and financial outcomes between network participants and non-participant nursing homes. Examples of key findings include:— Early adopter homes participating in the network experienced fewer
survey citations than the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service
dataset of the national sample of homes in 2003.— Early adopter homes participating in the network achieved better
differences in quality of care outcomes (as measured by survey
citations) than comparable non-participant homes from the 1996 to 2003
timeframe.— Early adopter homes participating in the network achieved better
differences in per bed net income and operating margins than comparable
non-participant homes from the 1996 to 2003 timeframe.
If it makes sense in every aspect that it should be done. Again, it’s the power thing at work here. Some day maybe we can hope to see every nursing home become a HOME.