The new Advancing Excellence Web site (www.nhqualitycampaign.org ), launched in October 2009, and provides a wealth of information for nursing homes, statewide long term care stakeholders, and consumers.  Profiles of each state are available that show statewide pressure ulcer, restraint and pain quality measures (QMs)  compared to the national average and ranked relative to other states. The profiles also show the number of nursing homes in each state with pressure ulcer rates above 20% and restraint rates above 11%. This information is useful for Advancing Excellence LANEs and/or other statewide stakeholder groups to plan educational activities. (Go to www.nhqualitycampaign.org , click on PROGRESS and STATE. STATE PROFILES, listed at the top of the page, are available in PDF and PPT formats.)

In addition to the State Profiles, anyone can access publically reported nursing home-specific data and view comparisons of nursing homes' performance compared to national and state performance as well as performance and trends over a period of time.  The data come from the MDS and are published quarterly on the Advancing Excellence Web site.

This data is public information and is available to anyone.  (Go to www.nhqualitycampaign.org , click on PROGRESS and NURSING HOME. Then click on the PUBLIC QUALITY MEASURE TREND GRAPHS. Look for the drop-down menu called STATE and click. Choose the State you are interested in and then select the Nursing Home.) All nursing homes that are Medicare-certified are listed.

Nursing Homes that participate in the Advancing Excellence Campaign have access to a special set of data that provides more precise information and shows comparisons of performance over time, comparisons to state and national performance and comparisons to goals that the nursing home has set.  (Go to www.nhqualitycampaign.org , click on PROGRESS and NURSING HOME.   Log-in to view your nursing home's data.)

Watch the news box on the homepage of the Advancing Excellence Web site for a special Webinar to review the data, how to access it, and how to use it.

To join or re-enroll in the Advancing Excellence Campaign, go to www.nhqualitycampaign.org. Nursing homes that were enrolled in Phase 1 and re-enroll before January 31st, 2010 will be designated Charter Members of the Campaign.