More than 1.5 million residents at nursing homes in the United States are at risk for common infections and high rates of preventable adverse events due to infection, according to The Joint Commission.
The Commission notes little is known about challenges in implementing a standardized measurement program to track infections.
To find a solution, The Joint Commission’s Department of Health Services Research is working on a study of nursing home infection measurement over a 12-month period of time.
The Joint Commission’s study “Implementing standardized measurement of infections in nursing homes: challenges and facilitators” plans to:
- Train a new cohort of nursing homes to enroll and initiate data reporting into the CDC National Healthcare Safety Network for infections caused by Clostridium difficile and multidrug-resistant organisms.
- Measure organizational and individual characteristics and perceptions known to affect the ability to successfully implement quality improvement initiatives.
- Prospectively identify challenges and facilitators to implementation and analyze these factors relative to organizational characteristics.
