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Elder Care News
New Coalition Targets Improved Quality of Life in
Nursing Homes
Residents, staff to benefit as quality summit
kicks off September 29
August 1, 2006 - A new, broad-based coalition of
long-term care providers, caregivers, medical and quality improvement
experts, government agencies, and consumers is launching an initiative
to improve quality of care and quality of life for the country’s 1.5
million nursing home residents. The two-year, voluntary campaign,
Advancing Excellence in America’s Nursing Homes, will kick off at a
national Quality Summit in Washington, D.C., on September 29, 2006.
The new grassroots-focused campaign will build on
and complement the work of existing quality initiatives including the
Nursing Home Quality Initiative (NHQI), Quality First, and the culture
change movement.
“The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
(CMS) is pleased to be a part of this unprecedented coalition of
organizations representing providers, consumers, and government
supporting the Advancing Excellence in America’s Nursing Homes
campaign,” said CMS Administrator Mark B. McClellan, M.D., Ph.D. “We all
share the very important goal of creating an environment where high
quality nursing home care is an expectation for every American.”
To ensure that continuous quality improvement is
comprehensive, sustainable and consumer-focused, the coalition has
adopted goals that seek to improve clinical care; incorporate nursing
home resident and family satisfaction surveys into continuing quality
improvements; and increase staff retention to allow for better, more
consistent care for nursing home residents.
The coalition’s one-day national Quality Summit
will assess quality in today’s nursing homes; the need for public
confidence in long-term care; the role of the caregiver workforce in
quality improvement; and how the campaign will be implemented at the
national and local levels. Keynote addresses from the co-chairs of the
National Commission for Quality Long-Term Care, former Senator Bob
Kerrey and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, are expected to
highlight the critical timing and goals of this effort.
More information on how organizations, nursing
homes, and consumers can get involved will soon be available on the
coalition’s Web site,
www.nhqualitycampaign.org or by contacting the coalition via email
at
info@nhqualitycampaign.org.
Key stakeholders involved in the planning of the
Advancing Excellence in America’s Nursing Homes campaign include:
Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care; American Association of Homes
and Services for the Aging (AAHSA); American Association of Nurse
Assessment Coordinators (AANAC); American College of Health Care
Administrators (ACHCA); American Health Care Association (AHCA);
American Medical Directors Association (AMDA); Centers for Medicare &
Medicaid Services (CMS) and its contractors, the Quality Improvement
Organizations (QIOs); The Commonwealth Fund; The Evangelical Lutheran
Good Samaritan Society; National Association of Health Care Assistants (NAHCA);
National Citizens’ Coalition for Nursing Home Reform (NCCNHR); and the
National Commission for Quality Long-Term Care.
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