Measures to improve health information technology (HIT) in nursing homes are among 13 priorities set in early December by Moving Forward. This coalition of nursing home residents, family members or care partners, healthcare providers, policy leaders, and advocates has developed a set of recommendations to begin transforming nursing home quality during the next two years and beyond, according to a coalition statement.

The health IT recommendations are as follows:

• In the short term, the committee will work on HIT-enabled methods to improve person-centered care by collecting resident goals, preferences, and priorities, and measuring the alignment of care with those goals.
• In the longer term, the committee will envision a pathway for national HIT adoption with key nursing home milestones and processes.

Technology-related recommendations came from two additional committees:

• Collaborative Care: The Person-Centered Care Committee included as one of its recommendations to create a more collaborative, better-aligned care planning process for each resident in nursing homes. This recommendation suggests working in collaboration with the Coalition’s Committee on HIT, since technology may be important to reaching the goal.
• Data Accessibility and Sharing: The Transparency & Accountability Committee will focus on data. Its recommendation says it will work to improve the collection, auditing, and sharing of nursing home-level ownership, financing, and operations data. The committee will pay special attention to the accessibility of data, the ease of data reporting, and alignment with other efforts, such as those enacted or being developed by the Biden administration.

Yet other recommendations touch on LeadingAge and CAST priorities:

• Alternative Payment Models: The Committee on Nursing Home Finance Reform will work on developing and piloting an alternative payment model to reduce barriers to care and increase compensation for nursing home staff.
• Nursing Home Quality Measures: The Quality Measurement & Improvement Committee will develop and test two nursing home quality measures. The first will capture resident experience, including engagement with family members or care partners and resident councils. The second will assess health equity and disparities in nursing homes.

See the full list of recommendations.

Behind the Recommendations

The Health Information Technology Committee was among seven committees that chose the recommendations after reviewing a report issued in April 2022 by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering & Medicine (NASEM).

That report attracted much-needed attention, as it found nursing home care to be fragmented, unsustainable, and urgently in need of fundamental change. At its release, LeadingAge President and CEO Katie Smith Sloan issued a statement calling the report “a piercing wake-up call for policymakers” and issuing a call to action. “Decades of underfunding have left America’s nursing home system in desperate need of an overhaul,” said Sloan. “As our nation grows rapidly older, millions of older Americans will need safe, high-quality care. It’s time to act to ensure they can access and afford the vital care nursing homes provide.”

In addition to the NASEM report findings, the Moving Forward committee members considered the challenges facing nursing home residents, workers, and nursing homes.

In their recommendations, the committees focused on four overarching and inter-related priorities:

• Strengthening nursing home capacity (including technology and staffing);
• Improving nursing home accountability;
• Improving care provider compensation and retention; and
• Ensuring that person-centered, quality care delivery and oversight is fully and properly financed.

Next, the committees will prepare action plans to advance the recommendations.