As of the April 2021 Care Compare refresh, 80% of LeadingAge Kansas members are staffing at 4 or 5 stars qualifying, them to add an additional overall star to their ratings, compared to only 47% of Kansas other Kansas nursing homes staffing at that level.
The importance of staffing at this level goes beyond star ratings. At no other time has staffing been so important and so challenging. Resident care in nursing homes during the Public Health Emergency (PHE) has put a stain on frontline workers. Extra time has been required to don and doff Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), perform infection surveillance, dining and activities in residents’ rooms, supporting residents’ emotional needs, assisting residents with visitation from family and friends, and dealing with their own fear, grief, and death experiences.
Make sure to celebrate your staffing star rating with your customers both internally and externally. Staff and family will appreciate the effort administration invests to maintain staffing excellence if they know what the staffing rating is and its meaning. This will have a positive influence on staff retention, your reputation in the community you serve and attract staffing talent.
Thank you to all frontline heroes who made sacrifices for their residents and residents’ families, and thank you to executive staff heroes who made staffing excellence a priority during this PHE.
Know Your Data…
Quality Metrics is a member benefit and can be accessed at the following website: https://data.leadingageny.org.
The Five-Star Analysis Report is a member benefit, and member facilities are provided with a quarterly email link to the report in January, May, July, and October.
Questions? Email Susan Chenail RN, CCM, RAC-CT at schenail@lany.org Senior Quality Improvement Analyst, LeadingAge New York
