Quality

AHCA/NCAL remains steadfast in supporting long term care centers in continuing to improve the quality of care provided to residents. By connecting providers to valuable resources and developing innovative solutions for stakeholders, AHCA/NCAL aims to improve lives by delivering solutions to advance the sector's quality of care.

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National Quality Award Program
National Quality Award Program
Go for the Gold! Learn about the pathway for providers of long term care to journey towards performance excellence.
Learn More
#GetVaccinated
#GetVaccinated
Ensuring the health and well-being of residents and staff in long term care remains a top priority. #GetVaccinated tools and resources available to help providers.
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Clinical Practice
Clinical Practice
Striving to provide important resources, guides, and information specifically geared for clinical staff in long term and post-acute care centers.
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National Quality Award Program
National Quality Award Program
Go for the Gold! Learn about the pathway for providers of long term care to journey towards performance excellence.
Learn More

Other Awards & Recognition Programs

AHCA/NCAL has a number of recognition programs and awards honoring member providers and long term care professionals that portray excellence in the sector and have made an impact in skilled nursing, assisted living communities and intellectual and developmental disabilities communities. Learn more about each of our programs below.

AHCA Awards Program honors individuals who are dedicated to improving the quality of lives of residents and their surrounding communities
NCAL Awards Program recognizes assisted living employees who demonstrate exemplary work within the profession
Jan Thayer Pioneer Award recognizes an individual in assisted living who has moved the senior care profession forward
Mary K. Ousley Champion of Quality Award recognizes an individual that has made significant national contributions to advancing quality performance

CoreQ

What Is CoreQ?

CoreQ is a set of five measures for skilled nursing care centers (SNCC) and assisted living (AL) communities to use to assess satisfaction among patients, residents, and their families developed by a team including, Nicholas Castle, Ph.D., the American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL), and providers with input from customer satisfaction vendors and residents. The measures capture short-stay and long-stay resident and family data for SNCCs, and resident and family data for ALs. Based on a core set of customer satisfaction questions to allow consistent measurement across long term and post-acute care settings, CoreQ has been independently tested as valid and reliable. CoreQ is now endorsed by the Partnership for Quality Measurement- https://p4qm.org/.

Documents

Five-Star Quality Rating System

The Five-Star Quality Rating System is a tool to help consumers select and compare skilled nursing care centers. Created by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in 2008, the rating system uses information from Health Care Surveys (both standard and complaint), Quality Measures, and Staffing. CMS's Nursing Home Compare website features the rating system. Learn more.

SNF Quality Reporting Program

Skilled nursing care centers must report data to CMS for the SNF Quality Reporting Program (QRP) required under the Improving Medicare Post-Acute Care Transformation (IMPACT) Act of 2014. Learn more.

Quality Assurance and Performance Improvement (QAPI)

Current regulation requires all skilled nursing centers to develop a Quality Assurance and Performance Improvement (QAPI) program. AHCA offers its members free tools, resources, webinars and programs to assist developing and sustaining an effective and comprehensive QAPI program in their centers. Learn more.

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Introduction to the National Quality Award Program
The AHCA/NCAL National Quality Award Program provides a pathway for providers of long term and post-acute care services to journey towards performance excellence. The program is based on the core values and criteria of the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program.