Study: Nursing homes benefit from culture changes

Nursing homes that change their culture to make care more resident-directed, foster staff autonomy and make the facility function more like a home than hospital do better on several measures of success, according to a new study from the Commonwealth Fund. The study, which looked at a representative sample of 1,435 nursing homes between February and June 2007, classed about 31 percent of nursing homes as "culture-change adopters," 25 percent as "culture-change strivers," and the remaining 43 percent as traditional homes.

Of the "adopters" group, 58 percent allowed residents to set their own schedules, compared with 22 percent of traditional homes. Also, 59 percent of homes that had adopted a changed culture included direct-care workers and even residents on the senior management teams, while only 24 percent of traditional nursing homes did so. Researchers found that 78 percent of homes implementing seven or more culture-change initiatives improved their competitive advantage in the market. Such homes also improved operational costs, staff retention and occupancy rates, the Fund said.

To learn more about the study:
- read this Modern Healthcare piece [1] (reg. req.)

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