LTC Data Cooperative

Nursing Homes: Join the Long Term Care Data Cooperative, a new national effort to help save and improve the lives of residents in nursing homes impacted by COVID-19 and to prepare for future public health threats.

About

The National Institute on Aging is funding the creation of an electronic health records system that will enable comprehensive tracking and studying of COVID-19 and future public health threats facing nursing homes.

Led by AHCA, the Long Term Care Data Cooperative will utilize nursing home residents’ electronic medical records (EMR) and associated data to create comprehensive electronic health records to help providers monitor their residents’ needs and outcomes. Additionally, the system will support public health reporting as well as allowing researchers to generate real-world evidence on different treatments and care practices for the elderly and individuals with disabilities in nursing homes.

The Cooperative will be the largest assembly of data from geographically and structurally diverse nursing homes and the residents they care for that has ever been assembled. The data will be updated weekly versus the standard quarterly CMS approach.

Over time, the mulit-year effort will serve three broader functions:

Assist providers with health care operations, including care coordination for residents who transfer between skilled nursing facilities.
Provide public health monitoring for medical conditions and infections, including COVID-19, to be securely shared with relevant health authorities.
Identify research opportunities for National Institute of Health funded academic institutions and commercial companies.

Why Join

A major barrier to developing appropriate clinical and operational responses during this global pandemic is the lack of comprehensive data. The Cooperative’s national database will be important to continue to learn and monitor the effects of COVID-19 and the vaccine among vulnerable residents to efficiently identify treatments, reduce the immediate and long-term impacts of the disease, and prepare for future public health threats.

What Will Be Collected?

EMRs contain a robust set of clinical information among patients including symptoms, vital signs, medications, and laboratory data. All this information is needed to understand the impact of COVID-19 on residents and to evaluate the effectiveness of the vaccine and treatments.

Together with Brown University, AHCA has partnered with data science expert Exponent Inc., and EMR expert MatrixCare to collect and analyze the data in a secure platform to identify trends in residents’ clinical status, care practices and outcomes that will help improve resident care.

Examples of available data:

Aggregate COVID-19 vaccine reports
Resident data via dashboard updates
Patient graphing and reporting tools that includes all available data

Cost

It is free for all nursing homes.

How to Join

Review and sign the legal agreement here.
Complete registration form below and upload your fully signed legal agreement.
AHCA will confirm registration via email within 72 hours.
AHCA will contact your vendor on your behalf to begin the data transfer process.