Staffing-related deficiency citations in nursing homes.

There is evidence that staffing characteristics influence quality of care in nursing homes. Federal and state surveyors conduct inspections of homes to assess their compliance with regulatory standards, including requirements related to staffing. Deficiency citations are issued when these standards are not met. This article examines the relationship between operational, facility, and market characteristics and organizational performance measured as staffing-related deficiency citations. Online Survey Certification of Automated Records (OSCAR) data from 2000 through 2007 were used with multinomial logistic regression analyses to identify factors associated with deficiency citations for staffing. Chain members and facilities with poor quality of care were more likely to receive deficiency citations for staffing. Greater bed count and competition between nursing homes were associated with a decreased likelihood of deficiency citations for staffing. Staffing-related deficiencies within nursing homes vary according to various operational, facility, and market characteristics.

Nursing home deficiency citations for physical restraints and restrictive side rails.

This article examines whether nursing home facility-level characteristics are associated with the likelihood of receiving deficiency citations for physical restraints, including restrictive side rails. Data from the on-line survey certification of automated records were used to calculate odds ratios for facility-level characteristics associated with these deficiency citations. Repeat records from 2000 to 2007 were combined to produce longitudinal data. The results of this study show that restraint/side rail deficiency citations were negatively associated with higher staffing levels of registered nurses and licensed practical nurses (p ≤ .001) and higher Medicaid reimbursement rates (p ≤ .01). Citations were positively associated with greater nurse aide staffing (p ≤ .01) and higher quality-of-care deficiency citation percentiles (p ≤ .001). The extent of physical restraint and restrictive side rail misuse within nursing homes appears to vary according to various facility characteristics. It is less clear how internal processes within a facility bring about these observed patterns of variation.