If you’re feeling stressed about improving or maintaining the star ratings of your senior care facility, you’re not alone. Our latest research shows that this is an industry-wide problem.

OwlHealth&Care just dug into the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) data, and here’s the scoop: the average overall ratings for nursing homes have dropped in the last two years, from 3.3 to 2.8, representing a significant decline. This is also particularly evident in the number of 5-star rated facilities, which has plummeted by 25% over the same period.

What is causing the decline?

Several factors have contributed to this concerning state. While the pandemic undoubtedly plays a major role in this downturn, it’s crucial to recognize that it is not the sole reason. Nursing homes face a multitude of challenges, including the pressure of inadequate nurse staffing, gaps in care services, and the threat of readmission penalties. These issues collectively have been impacting the quality-of-care residents receive, ultimately leading to lower satisfaction, occupancy and decline in overall ratings.

A critical hurdle for nursing homes to address the declining ratings lies in the lack of deep, actionable insights into the underlying factors driving the drop in ratings. Often, organizations are left with a mountain of data but no clear direction on how to leverage it and solve their underlying problems. How often have we heard the following, ‘We need to be able to dig deeper into performance issues’ or ‘I have many reports – but we are not able to get to the root cause of the problem.

 

What is the path forward?

Although this downward spiral can seem overwhelming, root cause analysis reveals one of the areas of improvement, that can help solve this problem is having the ability to understand your business through data and leveraging it to make data-driven decisions.  That is why many leading providers utilize intuitive business intelligence (BI) tools enabled with AI. These tools empower senior living teams to analyze massive quantities of data to derive valuable, actionable insights.

Imagine having granular, real-time information on staffing levels, resident health, care quality measures, and more – all at your fingertips with helpful visualizations. This comprehensive view allows for proactive decision-making and targeted interventions to address specific factors and improve overall ratings.

 

Business intelligence illuminates the path to better star ratings

With OwlHealth&Care’s advanced suite of BI tools, providers can boost their star ratings by driving performance improvements across critical areas:

      1. Supercharged Staffing:
        1. Hire faster by enhancing recruitment efficiency and expediting onboarding through data-driven hiring strategies.
        2. Optimize staff scheduling by aligning staff skills with resident needs for enhanced operational efficiency.
        3. Lower staff turnover by taking proactive measures to retain staff by analyzing turnover causes and promptly addressing them.

      2. Improved Care & Quality measures:
        1. Prevent falls, wounds & infections by employing predictive analytics for identifying adverse events and implementing targeted prevention strategies.
        2. Improve Quality measures by addressing root causes, with the insight to improve clinical processes. 
        3. Lower hospital readmissions & Decrease reliance on psychotropics with the intelligence to undertake strategic interventions.

      3. Enhanced Operational excellence:
        1. Maintain Patient- Nurse ratios with visibility to continually tracking PPD ratios.
        2. Improve Hand-hygiene compliance by monitoring patterns of non-compliance & taking action.

The improvements made across Staffing, Care & Operational factors will positively influence multiple scores and measures relevant to calculating the star ratings of your facilities.

 

Moving Toward Better Insights

 

The declining ratings of nursing homes are a wake-up call for the senior living industry. It’s time for organizations to leverage their existing data effectively to drive impactful and meaningful change. By leveraging robust BI tools, nursing homes can gain the insights they need to improve staffing levels, close care gaps, fix operational inefficiencies and improve their overall ratings.

So, are you ready to boost your ratings with BI tools? Click here to learn more or schedule a demo today.

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