America's Best Nursing Homes

The February edition of US News has a section titled, "America's Best Nursing Homes" and it lists some of the top nursing homes in various states. If you're thinking about long-term care for yourself or for a loved one, then you may want to look at this list.

In my region, some of the top nursing homes (according to US News) include:

• Crosslands in Kennett Square, PA
• Calvary Fellowship Homes in Lancaster, PA
• Holy Name Friary in Ringwood, NJ
  
• Cokesbury Village in Hockessin, DE
• Our Lady of Hope Residence in Latham, NY

There are 173 nursing homes listed and some scored a total of 15 stars while others scored a total of 14 stars in 3 different categories. All the homes listed scored 5 stars overall, the highest rating by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

You can also view the Medicare.gov - Nursing Home Compare website to do some research about different nursing homes in your area (www.medicare.gov/nhcompare).

How many nursing homes use Electronic Health Records (EHRs)?

What percentage of nursing homes (NH) use electronic health records (EHRs)? Perhaps I should call them skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) instead of nursing homes. There's a paper that was recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association (JAMIA) that answers this question. The authors on this paper were: Helaine E. Resnick PhD, MPH; Barbara B. Manard PhD; Robyn I. Stone DrPH; and Majd Alwan PhD.

Here are the key points:

• Nearly 43% of U.S. NH had EIS (electronic information system) for medical records, including nurse's notes, physician notes, and MDS forms. EIS use ranged from a high of 79.6% for admission, transfer, and discharge to a low of 17.6% for daily care by certified nursing assistants (CNAs).

Although this paper was published in 2009, it reflects data from 2004. One of the key points in the discussion is: "One way that electronic information systems could lead to improvements in quality of care would be for these systems to provide better support for transitions across care settings."

Care to view the abstract? Click here.

Resnick HE, Manard BB, Stone RI, Alwan M. Use of electronic information systems in nursing homes: United States, 2004. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2009 Mar-Apr;16(2):179-86.