Unit 3 Discussion Board - Essay Example

Ensuring quality standards within nursing homes is much debated issue. Over the period of time there were different standards used in performance evaluation of the nursing homes. Most of the quality standard systems within nursing homes tend to rank nursing homes according to the quantitative score they obtained. However, it is often argued that these quantitative scoring models lack the ability to identify nursing homes which are different in quality mainly due to the fact that the nursing homes are mostly multi-dimensional in nature.

(Phillips, Hawes, Lieberman, & Koren, 2007).The performance measurement systems therefore within nursing homes relied more on the assumption that the “facility performance contribute heavily towards individual’s performance”. (Phillips, Shen, Chen, & Sherman, 2007) However, there are various indicators which contribute towards the overall performance of the nursing homes.Many researchers believe that the key indicator of the performance of the homes is residents’ outcomes. (IOM, 1986).

Apart from that the facility’s compliance with the regulations such as compliance with standards, conditions of participation etc are other standards which are considered as key behind the measurement of the performance of the nursing facilities.However, there is other general criterion also which are typically being used to measure the performance of the health care services. Specifically consumer satisfaction is considered as the main driver of the value for health care services because it is believed that consumer satisfaction derives the administrative efficiencies of these facilities and both the variables have strong correlation between them however, generally, the characteristics of providers and hospitals, the interaction between the patients and the providers as well as the overall outcome of that process are the basics of evaluating the overall performance of the nursing care homes.

One of the most important barriers in performance evaluation of those nursing homes is the fact evaluating the performance is multidimensional in nature and there is no single measure of the performance evaluation. Further these homes are also under the regulation of the government which may force them to maintain quality standards which may not directly relate to the value generating capabilities of the homes. This therefore diverts the resources of those homes to activities which could otherwise have been used in improving the performance standards.

BibliographyIOM. (1986). Key Indicators of Quality Care. Retrieved June 24, 2008, from The National Academic Press: http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=646&page=378Phillips, C. D., Hawes, C., Lieberman, T., & Koren, M. J. (2007). Where should Momma go? Current nursing home performance measurement strategies and a less ambitious approach. Retrieved June 24, 2008, from BMC Health Service Research: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1920506Phillips, C. D., Shen, R., Chen, M.

, & Sherman, M. (2007). Evaluating Nursing Home Performance Indicators: An Illustration Exploring the Impact of Facilities on ADL Change. Retrieved June 24, 2008, from The Gerontologist : http://gerontologist.gerontologyjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/47/5/683