Nursing Home Quality Initiative

About 3 million elderly and disabled Americans received care in our nation's nearly 17,000 Medicare and Medicaid-certified nursing homes in 2001. Slightly more than half of these were long-term nursing home residents, but nearly as many had shorter stays for rehabilitation care after an acute hospitalization. About 75 percent were age 75 or older.

In November 2001, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tommy G. Thompson announced the Nursing Home Quality Initiative to continue to improve quality of care in nursing homes. Working with measurement experts, the National Quality Forum and a diverse group of nursing home industry stakeholders, CMS adopted a set of improved nursing home quality measures.

The national Nursing Home Quality Initiative continues to be a broad-based initiative that includes CMS’s continuing regulatory and enforcement systems, new and improved consumer information at 1-800-MEDICARE and www.medicare.gov, community-based nursing home quality improvement programs, and partnerships and collaborative efforts to promote awareness and support.

Learn more about the Nursing Home Quality Initiative in Arizona.