Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

CMS wants turnover rate cut 15 percent before 2008.

Quality improvement organizations will begin their work this summer toward reducing the rate of staff turnover in nursing homes.
 
The effort is part of a new three-year contract with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that calls for QIOs to cut nursing assistant turnover rates by at least 15 percent in over 2,000 nursing homes by late 2007. Staff turnover in many facilities exceeds 50 percent annually.
 
Reducing nursing aide turnover by at least 15 percent over the next three years would save about $27,000 per home per year - money that could be used to hire an additional nurse aide or finance professional development training opportunities.
 
QIOs will help nursing home management learn to measure staff and resident satisfaction and turnover rates, and they will encourage nursing home managers to assign the same aides to the same residents every time they work.
 
"Poor retention leads to understaffing and stressed-out nursing staff who must rush to provide very personal care to prevent pressure sores, feeding, bathing and assisting with toileting," said David Schulke, executive vice president of the American Health Quality Association.