The well-being and outcomes of your residents is at the heart of your mission. By prioritizing quality measures, you can ensure that residents receive the highest standard of care, promoting their safety, health, and overall well-being. Quality measures encompass various aspects of care, including clinical outcomes, resident satisfaction, and adherence to evidence-based practices.
Skilled nursing facilities that participate in value-based care initiatives often focus on several quality metrics to assess their performance and demonstrate the value they provide. While the specific metrics can vary depending on the program or initiative, here are some common quality metrics that SNFs may focus on for value-based care and how a virtual care solution can help attain these metrics.
1. Hospital Readmissions
Quality Care Metric #1: Reduce hospital readmissions by ensuring effective care transitions and providing comprehensive post-acute care to prevent complications or exacerbations of medical conditions.
Virtual Care Solution: SNFs can facilitate seamless care transitions, ensuring effective coordination between healthcare providers. Technology like Curve Health enables comprehensive post-acute care, reducing the likelihood of complications or worsening medical conditions that may lead to hospital readmissions.
2. Compliance with Regulatory Standards
Quality Care Metric #2: Regulatory requirements and demonstration of compliance with regulations from government bodies such as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and other accrediting organizations.
Virtual Care Solution: Virtual care solutions can assist SNFs in adhering to regulatory standards set by government bodies and accrediting organizations. By providing tools for documentation, EHR integration, auditing, and reporting, these platforms help SNFs demonstrate compliance with regulations such as those from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
3. Functional Outcomes
Quality Care Metric #3: Functional outcomes are assessing and monitoring residents' progress in activities of daily living (ADLs) and measuring improvements in mobility, self-care abilities, and independence.
Virtual Care Solution: Tracking improvements in mobility, self-care abilities, and independence, SNFs can assess the effectiveness of their care plans and tailor interventions accordingly.
4. Pressure Ulcer or Wound Care
Quality Care Metric #4: SNFs strive to prevent and manage pressure ulcers and other wounds effectively by implementing evidence-based protocols, conducting regular assessments, and promoting preventive measures.
Virtual Care Solution: Regular assessments, remote monitoring capabilities, and guidance on preventive measures can effectively prevent and manage pressure ulcers and other wounds, minimizing the risk of complications.
5. Medication Management
Quality Care Metric #5: Focused on ensuring accurate medication administration, appropriate prescribing practices, medication reconciliation, and monitoring for adverse drug reactions or interactions.
Virtual Care Solution: Virtual care can assist in accurate medication administration, ensuring appropriate prescribing practices, medication reconciliation, and monitoring for adverse drug reactions or interactions. This helps enhance medication safety and reduces the risk of medication-related incidents.
6. Infection Control
Quality Care Metric #6: The implementation of rigorous infection control protocols to prevent and manage healthcare-associated infections, reducing the risk of outbreaks and improving resident safety.
Virtual Care Solution: By incorporating robust infection control protocols into virtual care platforms, SNFs can effectively prevent and manage healthcare-associated infections. This technology enables the dissemination of best practices, remote monitoring of infection control measures, and prompt interventions, thereby enhancing resident safety.
7. Falls Prevention
Quality Care Metric #7: SNFs prioritize fall prevention strategies, such as risk assessments, environmental modifications, staff education, and individualized care plans, to minimize fall-related injuries among residents.
Virtual Care Solution: Virtual care solutions can support SNFs in implementing comprehensive fall prevention strategies. Risk assessments, educational resources for staff, personalized care plans, and environmental modifications can be integrated into the platform to minimize fall-related injuries among residents.
8. Care Planning and Coordination
Quality Care Metric #8: Comprehensive care planning, interdisciplinary collaboration, and effective communication to ensure residents receive person-centered care that addresses their individual needs and goals.
Virtual Care Solution: Virtual care platforms facilitate comprehensive care planning, interdisciplinary collaboration, and effective communication. By streamlining these processes, SNFs can ensure that residents receive person-centered care that addresses their individual needs and goals.
9. Staffing Ratios and Workforce Stability
Quality Care Metric #9: SNFs may focus on maintaining appropriate staffing ratios and staff continuity to ensure consistent and high-quality care delivery.
Virtual Care Solution: SNFs can utilize virtual care technology to maintain appropriate staffing ratios and promote workforce stability. This can include features like shift scheduling, staff communication tools, and resource management systems, ensuring consistent and high-quality care delivery.
10. Patient Satisfaction
Quality Care Metric #10: Patient satisfaction may be measured through surveys or feedback mechanisms to evaluate the overall experience and engagement of residents and their families.
Virtual Care Solution: Use the virtual care integrated tools to evaluate the overall experience and engagement of residents and their families, making necessary improvements based on the feedback received.
By emphasizing quality measures, it contributes to financial sustainability. With the shift towards value-based care and alternative payment models, SNFs are increasingly being held accountable for the quality and outcomes of care provided. Demonstrating positive quality measures allows SNFs to participate in value-based payment models, collaborate with accountable care organizations (ACOs), and position themselves as preferred partners for payers and managed care organizations. This, in turn, can lead to enhanced financial performance and opportunities for shared savings. Many SNF organizations are turning to an innovative telehealth approach to help reach their quality initiatives.
For more information on how a solution like Curve Health could help, please contact sales@curvehealth.com or schedule your demo today!
