TMF is partnered with three other health care improvement organizations in a project to drive improvements in care for nursing home residents using civil monetary penalty funds paid by noncompliant nursing homes.
The goals of the three-year project include reducing adverse events, improving dementia care, and improving nursing home staff sufficiency, competency and performance.
TMF, Deloitte Consulting LLC, Pathway Health and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement are collaborative partners in the Civil Money Penalty Reinvestment Program launched by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). A civil money penalty (CMP) is a penalty CMS may impose against a nursing home when the facility is not in substantial compliance with one or more Medicare and Medicaid participation requirements for long-term care facilities. A portion of CMPs collected from facilities are returned to the states in which the CMPs are imposed. State CMP funds may be reinvested to support activities that benefit nursing facility residents and that protect or improve their quality of life or care.
TMF and its partners are conducting meaningful research to create tools to help staff comply with long-term care regulations, improve their competencies and enhance resident-centered care. TMF is responsible for wide-scale, national-level diffusion of evidence-based practices as well as reviewing applications of nursing homes requesting to use CMP funds to benefit residents. TMF is working closely with leading industry associations, other Quality Innovation Network Quality Improvement Organizations and federal and state agencies.
The program is developing and implementing evidence-based interventions, activities, tools and resources to improve dementia care, reduce adverse events and improve staffing quality. Staffing quality includes areas such as reducing turnover, improving tenure and enhancing general staff performance. In addition, the program is supporting projects for resident and family councils, developing plans to provide temporary management of a nursing home and support activities to protect residents during facility closures. Lastly, this program supports efforts to administer, monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of CMP projects implemented throughout the country.
It also builds on other CMS initiatives, such as the National Nursing Home Quality Campaign and the National Partnership to Improve Dementia Care. These efforts also support the revised Requirements of Participation for Long Term Care Facilities of 2016, which represents the biggest reform to the industry since 1991.
