VERIFYING NURSING-HOME CARE QUALITY USING MINIMUM DATA SET QUALITY INDICATORS AND OTHER QUALITY MEASURES

Researchers, providers and government agencies have devoted time and r esources to the development of a set of Quality Indicators derived fro m Minimum Data Set (MDS) data. Little effort has been directed toward verifying that Quality Indicators derived from MDS data accurately mea sure nursing home quality. Researchers at the University of Missouri-C olumbia have independently verified the accuracy of QI derived from MD S data using four different methods; 1) structured participative obser vation, 2) QI Observation Scoring Instrument, 3) Independent Observabl e Indicators of Quality Instrument, and 4) survey citations. Our team was able to determine that QIs derived from MDS data did differentiate nursing homes of good quality from those of poorer quality.