Nursing Home Report Card Makes The Grade

A national, Web-based report card on nursing homes is improving some aspects of nursing home care, a new study finds.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services began publishing the "Nursing Home Compare" report card results on the Web in 2002. The site gives detailed information about the past performance of every Medicare- and Medicaid-certified nursing home in the country.

According to lead investigator Dana Mukamel, Ph.D., the study is the first "to investigate the impact of a report card on quality of nursing home care." Previous such studies have focused on health plans, hospitals or physicians.