Turnover, Weekend Staffing Will Impact Quality Measures

In a memo released earlier this month from the Director of the Quality, Safety, and Oversight Group at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), nursing homes were advised that additional information regarding staff turnover and weekend nurse staffing would be posted on the Care Compare website at the end of January. QSO-22-08-NH (available here) specifies that the following three staff turnover data points will be posted starting with the January 2022 Care Compare data refresh:

• The percent of registered nurse (RN) staff that have left the facility over the last year
• The percent of total nurse staff that have left the facility over the last year
• The number of administrators that have left the facility over the last year

In addition, weekend nurse staffing data would be added – specifically, the level of weekend RN and total nurse (e.g., RN, licensed practical nurse (LPN), certified nurse aide (CNA)) staffing. This will be reported in terms of the average number of RN and total nurse hours worked per resident per day on weekends. Despite the poor timing of implementing these measures during a staffing crisis, CMS intends to incorporate both of these measures into the Five-Star Quality Rating System starting in July 2022.

The data source for both sets of measures would be the quarterly Payroll-Based Journal (PBJ) submissions. CMS reminds homes that to maintain accurate turnover data, providers must ensure that they have an accurate system of staff identifiers and that they must correctly link employees to new identifiers to allow continuity if the provider changes payroll or PBJ data platforms.

These new data will be included in LeadingAge Quality Metrics and discussed in greater detail in coming weeks.

Contact: Darius Kirstein, dkirstein@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8841