Quality Improvement
CMS Press Release
A recent CMS press release reported that a "diligent and sustained focus on preventing serious bed sores in nursing home residents was remarkably effective according to the results of a project sponsored by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services." Results of the project have just been published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. "Reducing pressure ulcers-the clinical term for bed sores-is a priority for CMS and quality improvement organizations (QIOs) nationwide," said Kerry Weems, acting administrator of CMS. "It is also one of the most important goals of the voluntary Advancing Excellence in America's Nursing Homes campaign, of which CMS is a founding member. The nationwide project stopped more than two-thirds of the residents' serious bed sores - a dreaded complication of frailty and disability in old age - in the thirty-five nursing homes that reported data from the project, the paper reports.