Guest Blog: "CMS Five Star -- Friend or Foe?"
The following is a guest blog by Anthony Cirillo:
There have been at least two studies recently looking at the Nursing Home Compare Five Star ranking.
PentaStar Collaborative published a survey of 356 nursing home administrators on the CMS Five Star Rating System and how they felt it would affect their facilities.
Find the survey here.
Two items stood out for me. When asked what effect their rating would have on the perception of their facility by consumers, 51% felt that consumers would not care. Some answered this way because they felt that they had no competition geographically. Asked how the rating would effect the facility overall, 50% were neutral; 23% said it would effect positively and 27% said negatively.
Seeming to corroborate that is a study by national research firm Holleran that there is little or no correlation between a nursing home's Five-Star rating and its resident and family member satisfaction.
In an analysis of data from more than 12,000 nursing home residents and family members across 32 states, Holleran found little to no association between the one through five ratings given by CMS and actual satisfaction ratings. Holleran's research reflects satisfaction across skilled nursing facilities primarily in the nonprofit sector. Nursing homes rated as below average by CMS are garnering satisfaction ratings in the mid 80s, according to Holleran, which suggests these results show there are missing key elements in the Five-Star Rating system.
In this age of transparency where educated boomers are the caregivers, perhaps facilities need to pay more attention to ratings such as Nursing Home Compare Five Star however flawed. The buying public who has never encountered a nursing home has this as a first line of research and they will pay attention to it. Next they will ask family and friends who have experienced care for themselves or a loved one. That may validate the Five Star or very much play into the Holleran research.
The point is transparency is here to stay. Five Star will evolve and get better or something else will replace it. And as these results become tied to pay for performance there is even more reason to pay attention. It might also be misleading to think that because you are the only facility in a certain geographic area that you have a lock on the market. While health care is primarily local it is not always the case. Witness people in the Mexican border states who actually seek nursing home care in Mexico because of low cost, great amenities and a better experience.
Transparency is here to stay.
Anthony Cirillo, FACHE, ABC is a healthcare consultant, ombudsman and expert blogger for Wellsphere in the area of aging and senior health. He consults with long-term care facilities and is available for management retreats and association keynotes. He is the author of "Who Moved My Dentures? His company, Fast Forward Consulting empowers organizations to change the healthcare experience and leverage it in their marketing. Their "Experience Makeover" is a four-week intensive dive that assesses the employee and resident experience, redesigns it, equips and empowers everyone to change it and makes it an indelible part of the culture. To read more, go to www.4wardfast.com and www.anthonyssong.com.