LINCOLN, Neb., Oct. 6, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- National Research Corporation is pleased to announce the release of the 2014 National Research Report: Empowering Customer-Centric Healthcare Across the Continuum. This complimentary, annual study makes use of the most extensive data sets for long term services and supports (LTSS) providers using the My InnerView and OCS HomeCare products. My InnerView products measure satisfaction for residents, families, and employees of skilled nursing homes, short-stay and rehab facilities, and assisted living and independent living communities. OCS HomeCare products help home health and hospice organizations measure performance improvement related to patient experience and outcomes. Download the Executive Summary to learn more.
The number of adults over the age of 65 is expected to increase by 65% to 76.3 million in the next 20 years. Further estimates project the number of individuals requiring long term services and supports to reach 27 million in 2050. To ensure that seniors and others with chronic conditions have access to excellent service options for years to come, it is critical to evaluate the quality of LTSS organizations. This year's report analyzes four main components related to the quality measurement of LTSS providers to understand how to implement improvement strategies:
1. Defining Excellence – review the many approaches to defining and measuring quality and excellence for LTSS providers and better understand quality measure relationships and management actions that influence quality.
2. Driving Excellence – see where providers stand compared to peer organizations and uncover the elements that impact consumer likelihood to recommend.
3. What's Possible – enhance goal-setting abilities for organizational leadership through a better understanding of realistic performance improvement.
4. Moving the Bar – focus on realistic and meaningful improvement objectives—especially with so much at stake with government and other entities focusing on pay-for-performance.
The report also uncovers several key findings:
1. Range of Performance – focusing on excellence scores can help differentiate performance and inform meaningful performance improvement.
2. Relationship of Quality Measures – there is a positive correlation between many quality measures, such as the finding that high employee satisfaction leads to high resident satisfaction in assisted living communities.
3. Drivers of Employee Satisfaction – the top three drivers of employee satisfaction are identical to every post-acute setting measured.
4. Changes in Recommendation Scores – organizations are much more likely to see increases and decreases in their scores in any given year.
5. Improvement Over Time – improvement benchmarks broken out by starting score are valuable for setting appropriate and achievable improvement goals.
This report extends the thought leadership provided by previous national reports published since 2006. The author of the report, Christine Lang, reveals the key drivers behind this year's report format.
"With the elder population rising as quickly as it is, now is the time to focus on developing a wide range of long term services and supports that offer greater value and best help seniors maintain a high quality of life," said Lang. "We hope providers find this report meaningful to inform their understanding of the quality measures that are important to long term care stakeholders, and to direct the implementation of improvement strategies in their communities."
"We are very proud to offer this complimentary National Research Report," said Jason Stevens, Senior Vice President of Business Development at National Research. "This report provides the educational insights for anyone who impacts the quality of care for consumers, seniors, families, and employees of LTSS providers. Learning the trends year over year is key to driving excellence and organizational improvements. We hope we continue to enlighten the healthcare profession with these findings."
The report is being launched at the American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL) Annual Convention today, October 6, in Washington D.C.
About National Research Corporation
For more than 30 years, National Research Corporation (NASDAQ: NRCIA and NRCIB) has been at the forefront of patient-centered care. Today, the company's focus on empowering customer-centric healthcare across the continuum extends patient-centered care to incorporate families, communities, employees, senior housing residents, and other stakeholders.
Recognized by Modern Healthcare as the largest patient satisfaction firm in the U.S., National Research is dedicated to representing the true voice of patients and other healthcare stakeholders. This integration of cross-continuum metrics and analytics uncovers insights for effective performance improvement, quality measurement, care transitions, and many other factors that impact population health management.
National Research is headquartered in Lincoln, Nebraska. For more information, call 800-388-4264, write to info@nationalresearch.com, or visit www.nationalresearch.com.