Advancing Excellence in America's Nursing Homes Campaign
A 9/29/06 National Summit held in Washington DC launched the “Advancing Excellence in America’s Nursing Homes Campaign” - over 400 attendees from around the country participated (including two representatives from MANHR). The Campaign includes an “unprecedented”, broad-based coalition of organizations representing long-term care providers, caregivers, medical and quality improvement experts, government agencies, and consumers. This is the first time these groups, all with a stake in improving nursing home quality, have come together in a national effort to coordinate combined resources from national and local organizations.
NCCNHR is one of the Campaign’s founders and brings the national voice of nursing home residents to the Campaign. See additional background on the Campaign on NCCNHR’s website.
Campaign Goals
The Campaign was established to assess progress toward achieving the measurable goals identified below. According to the Campaign's Chair, Mary Jane Koren, the Campaign "...will continue beyond the 2-year period originally envisioned. The initial successes at measurably improving care for nursing home residents, combined with the positive feedback we've received from participants, including CMS, signaled the need to build on the solid foundation we've created and continue the campaign..."
Nursing homes voluntarily participate in the Campaign and must work on at least 3 of these 8 goals.
- Reducing high risk pressure ulcers
- Reducing the use of daily physical restraints
- Improving pain management for longer term nursing home residents
- Improving pain management for short stay, post-acute nursing home residents
- Establishing individual targets for improving quality
- Assessing resident and family satisfaction with the quality of care
- Increasing staff retention
- Improving consistent assignment of nursing home staff, so that residents regularly receive care from the same caregivers.
Consumer Involvement
The Campaign is committed to consumer involvement, and encourages nursing homes to seek and use consumer input to improve quality. Consumers are encouraged to join the campaign and become a participating consumer. For additional information and to register, use this link to the Advancing Excellence website.
Facility Assistance
Technical assistance and guidance are available from quality experts and through the Campaign website. The Local Area Network for Excellence (LANE) is a coalition of stakeholders at the state level that support providers and consumers in achieving the campaign goals. MANHR is a registered LANE Member, and as such, we offer assistance to facilities and consumers in the areas of family-run councils and advocacy.