Accuracy of pressure ulcer events in US nursing home ratings (4 August 2022)

Summary

This US study in the journal Medical Care aimed to assess the accuracy of Nursing Home Compare's (NHC) pressure ulcer measures, which are chief indicators of nursing home patient safety. The authors identified hospital admissions for pressure ulcers and linked these to nursing home-reported data at the patient level. They then calculated the percentages of pressure ulcers that were appropriately reported by stage, long-stay versus short-stay status, and race. Next, they estimated the correlation between an alternative claims-based measure of pressure ulcer events and NHC-reported ratings.

The study found that pressure ulcers were substantially underreported in data used by NHC to measure patient safety. The authors call for alternative approaches to improve surveillance of health care quality in nursing homes.