National Voluntary Consensus Standards for Nursing Homes 

In recent years, more than 1.4 million Americans over age 65 received healthcare services from the nation’s 15,500 skilled nursing facilities, accounting for approximately 6 percent of the nation’s healthcare expenditures. The quality of care provided to these residents of long-term and post-acute care nursing homes is a subject of ongoing concern among consumers. Although quality indicators have been used for internal and external quality review and improvement, standardized measures intended for public reporting and effective methods for measuring and reporting across institutions and over time have become available only recently. This report describes the evaluation of 29 measures of nursing home quality that were considered for endorsement; 21 of these measures were recommended for NQF endorsement for public reporting and quality improvement.