Jennifer Gaudet Hefele

Choosing a Nursing Home: What Do Consumers Want to Know, and Do Preferences Vary across Race/Ethnicity?

OBJECTIVE To identify what consumers want to know about nursing homes (NHs) before choosing one and to determine whether information preferences vary across race/ethnicity. DATA SOURCES/STUDY SETTING Primary data were collected in Greater Boston (January 2013-February 2014) from community-dwelling, white, black, and Latino adults aged 65+ and 40-64 years, who had personal/familial experience with a NH admission or concerns about one. STUDY DESIGN Eleven focus groups and 30 interviews were conducted separately by race/ethnicity and age group. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Participants wanted detailed information on the facility, policies, staff, and residents, such as location, staff treatment of residents, and resident conditions. They wanted a sense of the NH gestalt and were interested in feedback/reviews from residents/families. Black and Latino participants were especially interested in resident and staff racial/ethnic concordance and facility cultural sensitivity. Latino participants wanted information on staff and resident language concordance. CONCLUSIONS Consumers want more information about NHs than what is currently available from resources like Nursing Home Compare. Report card makers can use these results to enhance their websites, and they should consider the distinct needs of different racial/ethnic groups. Future research should test methods for collecting and reporting resident and family feedback/reviews.

Nursing home Facebook reviews: who has them, and how do they relate to other measures of quality and experience?

Background The growing use of social media creates opportunities for patients and families to provide feedback and rate individual healthcare providers. Whereas previous studies have examined this emerging trend in hospital and physician settings, little is known about user ratings of nursing homes (NHs) and how these ratings relate to other measures of quality. Objective To examine the relationship between Facebook user-generated NH ratings and other measures of NH satisfaction/experience and quality. Methods This study compared Facebook user ratings of NHs in Maryland (n=225) and Minnesota (n=335) to resident/family satisfaction/experience survey ratings and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) 5-star NH report card ratings. Results Overall, 55 NHs in Maryland had an official Facebook page, of which 35 provided the opportunity for users to rate care in the facility. In Minnesota, 126 NHs had a Facebook page, of which 78 allowed for user ratings. NHs with higher aid staffing levels, not affiliated with a chain and located in higher income counties were more likely to have a Facebook page. Facebook ratings were not significantly correlated with the CMS 5-star rating or survey-based resident/family satisfaction ratings. Conclusions Given the disconnect between Facebook ratings and other, more scientifically grounded measures of quality, concerns about the validity and use of social media ratings are warranted. However, it is likely consumers will increasingly turn to social media ratings of NHs, given the lack of consumer perspective on most state and federal report card sites. Thus, social media ratings may present a unique opportunity for healthcare report cards to capture real-time consumer voice.

Examining Racial and Ethnic Differences in Nursing Home Quality

BACKGROUND Identifying racial/ethnic differences in quality is central to identifying, monitoring, and reducing disparities. Although disparities across all individual nursing home residents and disparities associated with between-nursing home differences have been established, little is known about the degree to which quality of care varies by race//ethnicity within nursing homes. A study was conducted to measure within-facility differences for a range of publicly reported nursing home quality measures. METHODS Resident assessment data on approximately 15,000 nursing homes and approximately 3 million residents (2009) were used to assess eight commonly used and publicly reported long-stay quality measures: the proportion of residents with weight loss, with high-risk and low-risk pressure ulcers, with incontinence, with depressive symptoms, in restraints daily, and who experienced a urinary tract infection or functional decline. Each measure was stratified by resident race/ethnicity (non-Hispanic white, non-Hispanic black, and Hispanic), and within-facility differences were examined. RESULTS Small but significant differences in care on average were found, often in an unexpected direction; in many cases, white residents were experiencing poorer outcomes than black and Hispanic residents in the same facility. However, a broad range of differences in care by race/ethnicity within nursing homes was also found. CONCLUSION The results suggest that care is delivered equally across all racial/ethnic groups in the same nursing home, on average. The results support the call for publicly reporting stratified nursing home quality measures and suggest that nursing home providers should attempt to identify racial/ethnic within-facility differences in care.

Population-Based Risk Factors for Shoulder Dystocia

Objective: To re‐examine the risk factors for shoulder dystocia given the increasing rates of obesity and diabetes in pregnant women. Design: Retrospective observational study. Setting: Five hospitals located in Wisconsin, Florida, Maryland, Michigan, and Alabama. Participants: We evaluated 19,236 births that occurred between April 1, 2011, and July 25, 2013. Methods: Data were collected from electronic medical records and used to evaluate the risk of shoulder dystocia. Data were analyzed using a generalized linear mixed model, which controlled for clustering due to site. Results: When insulin was prescribed, gestational diabetes was associated with an increased risk of shoulder dystocia (odds ratio = 2.10, 95% confidence interval [1.01, 4.37]); however, no similar association was found with regard to gestational diabetes treated with glycemic agents or through diet. Use of epidural anesthesia was associated with an increased risk for shoulder dystocia (odds ratio = 3.47, 95% confidence interval [2.72, 4.42]). Being Black or Hispanic, being covered by Medicaid or having no insurance, infant gestational age of 41 weeks or greater, and chronic diabetes were other significant risk factors. Conclusion: With the changing characteristics of pregnant women, labor and birth clinicians care for more pregnant women who have an increased risk for shoulder dystocia. Our findings may help prospectively identify women with the greatest risk.

A National-Level Analysis of the Relationship Between Nursing Home Satisfaction and Quality

Little research has explored the relationship between consumer satisfaction and quality in nursing homes (NHs) beyond the few states mandating satisfaction surveys. We examine this relationship through data from 1,765 NHs in the 50 states and District of Columbia using My InnerView resident or family satisfaction instruments in 2013 and 2014, merged with Certification and Survey Provider Enhanced Reporting, LTCfocus, and NH Compare (NHC) data. Family and resident satisfaction correlated modestly; both correlated weakly and negatively with any quality-of-care (QoC) and any quality-of-life deficiencies and positively with NHC five-star ratings; this latter positive association persisted after covariate adjustment; the negative relationship between QoC deficiencies and family satisfaction also remained. Overall, models explained relatively small proportions of satisfaction variance; correlates of satisfaction varied between residents and families. Findings suggest that satisfaction is a unique dimension of quality and that resident and family satisfaction represent different constructs.