Nursing home evaluation system

Abstract

Methods, systems, and devices are described for determining resource allocation in a resident care facility, like a nursing home facility. Embodiments of the invention provide assessment questions to an assessor via a computer interface. The assessment questions may be based on a base assessment model having questions relating to a number of resident care areas. Responses to the assessment questions may be received, some relating to answers provided to the assessor by respondents (e.g., residents or staff of the resident care facility). The responses may be processed to generate an assessment dataset, which may then be used to generate quality scores for the various resident care areas. The quality scores may indicate likelihoods of citation in the resident care areas as a function of data derived from the base assessment model. The quality scores and/or assessment results may then be graphically displayed and used to formulate a resource allocation determination.

1 . A system for generating resource allocation determinations for a nursing home facility, the system comprising:
 a computer operable to provide a base assessment model modeled after a Quality Indicator Survey, wherein the Quality Indicator Survey comprises questions addressing a plurality of resident care areas, the plurality of resident care areas relating to at least one of choices, dignity, abuse, health, personal property, or quality;   a network portal interface operable to provide a set of assessment questions to an assessor terminal, the set of assessment questions relating to at least a portion of the plurality of resident care areas comprised in the Quality Indicator Survey, wherein the assessor terminal is operable to:
 provide the set of assessment questions to an assessor; and 
 receive responses to the set of assessment questions based on answers provided to the assessor by a set of respondents, wherein the set of respondents comprises at least one of a resident of the nursing home facility, a relative of the resident of the nursing home facility, or an employee of the nursing home facility; 
   a response processing unit in operative communication with the network portal interface and the computer and operable to generate quality scores for each of the plurality of resident care areas based on the responses, each quality score being indicative of a likelihood of citation in each resident care area as a function of data derived from the Quality Indicator Survey;   a display generation unit in operative communication with the response processing unit and operable to display each quality score graphically in relation to its resident care area as a function of the data derived from the Quality Indicator Survey, wherein displaying each quality score comprises:
 displaying a first data range in relation to a graphical scale, the first data range representing a range of scores in the resident care area indicative of a substantial certainty of citation in the resident care area; 
 displaying a second data range in relation to the graphical scale, the second data range representing a range of scores in the resident care area indicative of an uncertain likelihood of citation in the resident care area; 
 displaying a third data range in relation to the graphical scale, the third data range representing a range of scores in the resident care area indicative of a substantial certainty of no citation in the resident care area; and 
 displaying an indicator indicating a location of the quality score in relation to the graphical scale; and 
   an allocation determination unit, in operative communication with the response processing unit, and operable to formulate a resource allocation determination as a function of at least one of the quality scores.   
     
     
         2 . A method for generating information for determining resource allocation in a resident care facility, the method comprising:
 providing a set of assessment questions to an assessor, the set of assessment questions being:
 based on a base assessment model having questions relating to a plurality of resident care areas; and 
 related to at least a portion of the plurality of resident care areas; 
   receiving responses to at least a portion of the set of assessment questions;   processing the responses to generate an assessment dataset;   generating a quality score for at least one of the resident care areas, the quality score being based on the assessment dataset and indicative of a likelihood of citation in the resident care area associated with the quality score, as a function of data derived from the base assessment model; and   displaying the quality score graphically in relation to the data derived from the base assessment model.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising:
 providing a computer network portal interface, the computer network portal interface being stored on a server and operable to interface with an assessor client terminal, wherein:
 providing the set of assessment questions comprises providing the set of assessment questions via the computer network portal interface to the assessor client terminal, and 
 receiving the responses comprises receiving the responses via the computer network portal interface from the assessor client terminal. 
   
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising:
 generating data ranges associated with the quality score as a function of the data derived from the base assessment model, wherein:
 a first data range represents a range of possible quality scores in the resident care area with a substantially high likelihood of citation in the resident care area; 
 a second data range represents a range of possible quality scores in the resident care area with a substantially uncertain likelihood of citation in the resident care area; and 
 a third data range represents a range of possible quality scores in the resident care area with a substantially low likelihood of citation in the resident care area. 
   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein displaying the quality score comprises:
 displaying a graphical scale indicating a full range of possible quality scores for the resident care area;   displaying the first data range in relation to the graphical scale;   displaying the second data range in relation to the graphical scale;   displaying the third data range in relation to the graphical scale; and   displaying an indicator indicating the location of the quality score in relation to the graphical scale.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising:
 deriving a likelihood of citation for each of the possible quality scores based at least in part on a positive predictive value of the possible quality score resulting in a citation according to the base assessment model.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising:
 deriving a citation threshold from the base assessment model; and   converting the citation threshold to a first threshold quality score, such that, for the resident care area, the base assessment model indicates a substantially certain likelihood of citation when the generated quality score is below the first threshold quality score and the base assessment model indicates a substantial certainty of no likelihood of citation when the generated quality score is above the first threshold quality score.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , further comprising:
 displaying a graphical scale indicating a full range of possible quality scores for the resident care area;   displaying a first data range in relation to the graphical scale, the first data range representing a range of the possible quality scores in the resident care area falling below the first threshold quality score;   displaying a second data range in relation to the graphical scale, the second data range representing a range of the possible quality scores in the resident care area falling above the first threshold quality score; and   displaying an indicator indicating the location of the generated quality score in relation to the graphical scale.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 7 , further comprising:
 deriving a second threshold quality score greater than the first threshold quality score, wherein the second threshold quality score indicates a quality score for the resident care area where there is a maximum positive difference between an upper score and a lower score,   wherein the upper score indicates a composite positive predictive value, according to the base assessment model, of a citation resulting from a range of the possible quality scores falling above the second threshold quality score, and   wherein the lower score indicates a composite positive predictive value, according to the base assessment model, of a citation resulting from a range of the possible quality scores falling below the second threshold quality score and above the first threshold quality score.   
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , further comprising:
 displaying a graphical scale indicating a full range of possible quality scores for the resident care area;   displaying a first data range in relation to the graphical scale, the first data range representing a range of the possible quality scores in the resident care area falling below the first threshold quality score;   displaying a second data range in relation to the graphical scale, the second data range representing a range of the possible quality scores in the resident care area falling above the first threshold quality score and below the second threshold quality score;   displaying a third data range in relation to the graphical scale, the third data range representing a range of the possible quality scores in the resident care area falling above the second threshold quality score; and   displaying an indicator indicating the location of the generated quality score in relation to the graphical scale.   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising:
 providing a subsequent assessment question based on at least one of the set of responses.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising:
 hiding a subsequent assessment question based on at least one of the set of responses.   
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein at least a portion of the responses relate to personal observations made by the assessor. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein at least a portion of the set of responses relate to answers provided to the assessor by residents residing at the resident care facility. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein at least a portion of the set of responses relate to answers provided to the assessor by relatives of residents residing at the resident care facility. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein at least a portion of the set of responses relate to answers provided to the assessor by staff of the resident care facility. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein at least a portion of the set of responses relate to prior resident evaluation data. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising:
 generating a quality score for each of a set of care sub-areas,   wherein at least one of the plurality of care areas comprises the set of care sub-areas.   
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the generated quality score for the at least one of the resident care areas is based in part on data relating to another of the resident care areas. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising:
 analyzing the assessment dataset to generate an analytic dataset.   
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 20 , wherein:
 analyzing the assessment dataset comprises statistically processing the assessment dataset to generate predictive data for use in making a citation prediction, and   the analytic dataset comprises the citation prediction.   
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising:
 refining the set of quality scores based on a set of comparison data.   
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising:
 refining the set of quality scores based on a set of previously-acquired assessment results.   
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the citation comprises an initiation of a legal proceeding relating to a sub-standard practice of the resident care facility. 
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the base assessment model comprises:
 a predefined assessment dataset; and   a plurality of prior assessment datasets, each prior assessment dataset having been generated from responses to prior assessments.   
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 25 , wherein generating the quality score comprises:
 generating the quality score as a function of the predefined assessment dataset; and   refining the quality score based on at least a portion of the prior assessment datasets.   
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising:
 formulating a resource allocation determination as a function of the quality score.   
     
     
         28 . The method of  claim 27 , wherein the resource allocation determination is indicative of an allocation of resources operable to reduce the likelihood of citation in the resident care area associated with the quality score. 
     
     
         29 . The method of  claim 27 , wherein the resource allocation determination is indicative of an allocation of resources among a plurality of resident care areas, resident care sub-areas, or resident care facilities. 
     
     
         30 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising:
 encrypting the set of assessment data.   
     
     
         31 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein:
 the base assessment model comprises the Quality Indicator Survey;   the citation comprises a trigger for a Stage II investigation; and   the likelihood of citation comprises a likelihood that a further citation will be issued as a result of the Stage II investigation.   
     
     
         32 . A computer-readable storage medium having a computer-readable program embodied therein for directing operation of a computer interface, the computer-readable program including instructions for generating information for determining resource allocation in a resident care facility in accordance with the following:
 providing a set of assessment questions to an assessor via the computer interface, the set of assessment questions being based on a base assessment model having questions relating to a plurality of resident care areas, and related to at least a portion of the plurality of resident care areas;   receiving, via the computer interface, responses to at least a portion of the set of assessment questions, at least a portion of the responses relating to answers provided to the assessor by a set of respondents;   processing the responses to generate an assessment dataset; and   generating a quality score for at least one of the resident care areas, the quality score being based on the assessment dataset and indicative of a likelihood of citation in the resident care area as a function of data derived from the base assessment model.   
     
     
         33 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 32 , wherein the instructions for generating information for determining resource allocation in the resident care facility are further in accordance with providing a computer network portal interface operable to interface with an assessor client terminal. 
     
     
         34 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 32 , wherein the instructions for generating information for determining resource allocation in the resident care facility are further in accordance with displaying the quality score graphically in relation to the data derived from the base assessment model. 
     
     
         35 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 32 , wherein the instructions for generating information for determining resource allocation in the resident care facility are further in accordance with analyzing the assessment dataset to generate an analytic dataset. 
     
     
         36 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 32 , wherein the instructions for generating information for determining resource allocation in the resident care facility are further in accordance with formulating a resource allocation determination as a function of the quality score.