Make Care Safer by Reducing Harm
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services organizes measures in the state health system performance pillar of the Scorecard using the domains defined in the Meaningful Measures initiative. The initiative identifies the highest priority areas for quality measurement and improvement. The measures in this domain focus on preventing harm caused in the delivery of care, which can make care safer for Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) beneficiaries.
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Antipsychotic drugs are an important treatment for patients with certain mental health conditions, but they are associated with an increased risk of death when used in elderly patients with dementia. The medications also have side effects. If possible, nursing homes should try to address a resident’s expressions of distress by first implementing person-centered approaches that do not involve medications. Addressing each resident’s needs through approaches other than medications—like higher staffing ratios, non-pharmacological interventions, and regular assignment of nursing staff—may lower the use of medications in many cases. This measure reports the percentage of long-stay nursing home residents who received antipsychotic drugs in calendar year 2019. Lower rates are better on this measure. The purple dashed line represents the median, or middle, of all values reported. |
CMS calculates this measure using data from the Minimum Data Set (MDS). The MDS is part of the federally mandated process for clinical assessment of all residents in Medicare and Medicaid certified nursing homes. Not all of a state’s residents reflected in the data for this measure are enrolled in Medicaid, but Medicaid is the primary payer across the nation for long-term care services. |
State Health System Performance | Source: Provider Data Catalog Note: Data for American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands, and U.S. Virgin Islands are not available. |