Quality Indicators For Nursing

The Hospital Quality Alliance (HQA) uses basic quality indicators to measure the quality of care provided in a nursing center. These indicators include the following:

Indicators of Safety

• Number of falls
• Number of pressure ulcers
• Number of patients with a catheter
• Number of patients with a urinary tract infection (UTI)
• Number of patients with a pressure sore

Indicators of Care Quality for Nursing

Nursing homes are responsible for providing the highest-quality care possible to their residents, as well as keeping them safe from harm. To ensure this, nursing homes track and report performance data on a regular basis. This data can include quality indicators (QI), which help determine whether or not the nursing home is meeting state regulations regarding resident safety and quality of care.

Indicators can include things such as:

• An infection rate among residents that has remained below a certain threshold since March 1st.
• A percentage of patients receiving treatment within 24 hours of being admitted into the facility.

Indicators of Organizational Performance

• Patient satisfaction
• Quality of care
• Cost of care
• Contribution to community

Each of these areas has indicators associated with them that you can use to measure your organization’s performance. The following is a list of examples in each category:

• Patient Satisfaction – Average wait time, patient feedback surveys, number of errors reported by patients
• Quality – Complication rates for various procedures, mortality rate for certain diagnoses and procedures (e.g., heart failure or colon cancer), percentage of patients who are readmitted after being discharged from the hospital (this may be higher than desired)

General Indicators of Performance

The Hospital Quality Alliance (HQA) uses these indicators to evaluate the quality of nursing care. The HQA is a voluntary partnership between hospitals, healthcare organizations and other stakeholders in the health care community to improve quality of hospital care through measurement, reporting and learning.

The general indicators are not specific to nursing or any particular type of nursing (e.g., cardiovascular nurses). They are also not specific to any particular type of patient (e.g., pediatrics).

Indicator Types Used by the Hospital Quality Alliance (HQA)

The Hospital Quality Alliance (HQA) uses the following indicators:

• Quality Indicators for Nursing (QIN)
• Indicators of Safety
• Indicators of Care Quality for Nursing (ICQN)
• Indicators of Organizational Performance (IOP)

In addition to these indicators, HQA also uses General Indicators of Performance (GIP).

The Hospital Quality Alliance uses basic quality indicators to measure the quality of care provided in a nursing center.

The Hospital Quality Alliance uses basic quality indicators to measure the quality of care provided in a nursing center. The Hospital Quality Alliance is a nonprofit organization that collects and analyzes quality data from nursing centers across the United States, including Medicare-certified facilities.

The Hospital Quality Alliance uses six basic indicators to measure how well a nursing home delivers on eight “essential services”:

• health inspections;
• quality measures;
• staffing levels;
• complaints filed against a facility;
• number of health issues reported by residents;
• compliance with rules and regulations governing nursing homes, such as those regarding proper nutrition and feeding schedules (or lack thereof);

In conclusion, it is clear that there are many quality indicators for nursing. These include both general measures of care quality as well as indicators specific to nurses and nursing centers. The Hospital Quality Alliance has identified a number of these measures and uses them to measure the quality of care provided in hospitals across the country.