Earlier this year, the National Center for Assisted Living (NCAL) worked with Brown University to conduct an analysis of Silver and Gold Quality Award (QA) winners compared with those who are not awardees to determine outcomes of the QA journey. The
results of this analysis have been completed and demonstrate favorable results. Below is a quick summary of the findings.
Brief Summary of Analysis
Data on assisted living communities that received a Silver or Gold QA (from 2017-2020) were compared to that of those who did not receive a QA. Two different cohorts were created. The first was residents in an assisted living community on December 31, 2018, and the second was residents in an assisted living community on December 31, 2019. Each cohort’s outcomes were followed for one year. The analysis used Medicare claims data from 2018, 2019, and 2020 and examined five outcomes: hospitalizations, ambulatory care sensitive hospitalizations, emergency department visits, injury-related emergency department visits, and long-term nursing home transitions.
While rates on all outcomes were lower among awardees than non-awardees, only emergency department use was statistically significantly lower among awardees vs non-awardees in both 2019 and 2020 (47.2% vs 50.7%). This means a greater than 5% lower relative risk of emergency department use for awardees vs non-awardees.
The results of the analysis suggest that Silver and Gold awardees may have better outcomes compared to non-awardees.