Alzheimer's Association Quality of Life Project
This project is a three year study funded by the national Alzheimer’s Association. Fifty-five nursing homes from around the country have been given access to 17 dementia-specific quality measures (QM) and benchmarks to highlight care problems not seen in the facility QM/QI rates provided by CMS, which are based on all residents. The new dementia QMs were developed by NYAHSA’s EQUIP research staff and incorporated into the existing EQUIP quality improvement software program. Facilities in the program have exclusive access to EQUIP’s Dementia suite of reports so the EQUIP staff can evaluate whether access to these measures and reports helps staff better identify, assess and treat common negative outcomes associated with dementia, such as disruptive behaviors, untreated pain, antipsychotic use and incontinence.