CMS Issues Memorandum Regarding Survey Process

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the States have used two standard survey processes that assess the quality of care and quality of life for nursing home residents.  CMS issued S&C 15-40-NH on May 22nd to discuss the survey processes and improvements made and planned.  CMS expects to continue to make improvements so that the States currently participating in the Quality Indicator Survey (QIS) process have the support necessary to conduct surveys as effectively as possible and to realize the benefits of the QIS process.  At the same time, CMS continues to evaluate both the traditional and the QIS processes to identify, in both quantitative and qualitative terms, the strengths and limitations of each system.  These efforts involve considerable data analysis from survey results, user feedback from CMS Regional Offices and State Survey Agencies, technical expert panels, reviews of CMS Form 2567 statements of deficiencies, and observational reviews of the survey processes.  The purpose of this Memorandum is simply to provide an overview of the current status of our reviews.

The attached S&C Memo also provides a high-level summary of the work done to examine nursing home survey methodologies for efficiency and effectiveness, as well as the actions that were taken to improve the processes, with particular emphasis on the QIS process.  This program brief is focused on the standard recertification survey.