The purpose of this article is to report on the development of the concept and measurement of preference congruence among NH residents (phase 1), its refinement into a set of quality indicators by Advancing Excellence in America's Nursing Homes (phase 2), and its pilot evaluation in a sample of 12 early adopting NHs prior to national rollout (phase 3). The recommended toolkit for providers to use to measure PCC consists of (1) interview materials for 16 personal care and activity preferences from Minimum Data Set 3.0, plus follow-up questions that ask residents how satisfied they are with fulfillment of important preferences; and (2) an easy to use Excel spreadsheet that calculates graphic displays of quality measures of preference congruence and care conference attendance for an individual, household or NH. The no-cost PCC toolkit provides a new means to measure the quality of PCC delivery. As of February 2014, over 700 nursing homes have selected the Advancing Excellence in America's Nursing Homes PCC goal as a focus for quality improvement. The toolkit enables providers to incorporate quality improvement by moving beyond anecdote, and advancing more systematically toward honoring resident preferences.

Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, 15(9). doi: 10.1016/j.jamda.2014.02.004

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