The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on Wednesday launched its enhanced Five-Star Quality Rating System – adding weekend staffing and annual turnover to the mix.
CMS began posting weekend staffing and turnover rates on Medicare’s Care Compare website in January; the agency posted how the staffing data will be weighted against other five-star measures earlier this month.
In addition to existing staffing measures for registered nurses (RNs) and total nurse hours per resident per day, new methodology will incorporate:
- Total nurse staffing hours per resident per day on weekends, including RNs, licensed practical nurses (LPNs), and certified nursing assistants (CNAs)
- Annual total nurse staff turnover
- RN turnover within a given year
- Annual number of administrators who have left the nursing home
Performance on each measure is converted to points, which are then totaled and compared to thresholds for staffing star ratings.
CMS aims to hold nursing homes to a higher standard and incentivize robust staffing. The updates come at a time when the sector is experiencing a more than 14% drop in staffing levels compared to pre-pandemic. That’s a loss of nearly 229,000 caregivers since February 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Still, CMS research shows high nurse turnover is associated with lower quality of care. Nurses who have worked at a facility for a long period of time know the residents better and recognize small health changes and be proactive.
Administrators with longer tenure create stable leadership as well, according to CMS, leading to more consistent policies and protocols.
“This enhancement to the Five-Star Quality Rating System helps to better inform consumers and residents about the care each nursing home provides and encourages nursing homes to improve the staffing of their facilities to foster better outcomes for residents,” CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure said in a statement.
Skilled Nursing News reached out to CMS to learn how the updates will affect – or if they have already affected – overall nursing home star ratings. Agency representatives are looking into the inquiry but have yet to respond as of the time of publication.
Companies featured in this article:
