Assignment:

Reading:

Read about the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Nursing Home Compare website. This website allows you to compare the performance of nursing facilities throughout the United States.

Rearch for a nursing facility that you have visited in the past. If you have never visited a nursing facility in the United States, select one from Bowling Green, ky (zip code 42101) or your hometown.

1. Note how your selected nursing facility rates in each of the following quality measurement categories:

1. Health Inspections
2. Staffing
3. Quality Measures

2. Explore the website further and review the data for each measurement category. Then answer the following

3. Which of these performance measures do you believe is most important to potential customers of healthcare services? Why?

4. Which performance measure is least important to the consumers? Why?

5. Should consumers use this website as part of their process to select a nursing facility? Why or why not?

6. What other factors, data, information or methods should a consumer seek out and utilize when choosing a nursing facility?

7. If you have visited this nursing facility, do you agree with the ratings it has received by CMS?

Research Component.

1. Find a full article source on Google Scholar or in WKU libraries that discuss a topic relative to this discussion, such as health inspection ratings in nursing homes, quality of care in nursing homes, innovative practices, staffing ratios in nursing homes, safety concerns, law suits, etc.

2. Utilize this article within your paper, tying the information you found with this article as you review and analyze and think critically about what you are reading about the facility you have selected.

3. Cite this reference at the end of your discussion board post in proper APA format and be sure to reference it at least once within your post.