The association of nursing home quality ratings and spread of COVID-19

Abstract

Objectives: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has severely affected nursing home residents. Given the continued high incidence of COVID-19, and the likelihood that new variants and other infectious agents may cause future outbreaks, we sought to understand the relationship of nursing home quality ratings and measures of COVID-19 outbreak severity and persistence.

Design: We analyzed nursing home facility-level data on COVID-19 cases and deaths, county-level COVID-19 rates, and nursing home data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), including ratings from the CMS Nursing Home Five-Star Quality Rating System. We used regression analysis to examine the association between star ratings and cumulative COVID-19 incidence and mortality as well as persistent high resident incidence.

Setting: All nursing homes in the CMS COVID-19 Nursing Home Dataset reporting data that passed quality assurance checks for at least 20 weeks and that were included in the January 2021 Nursing Home Care Compare update.

Participants: Residents of the included nursing homes.

Measurements: Cumulative resident COVID-19 incidence and mortality through January 10, 2021; number of weeks with weekly resident incidence of COVID-19 in the top decile nationally.

Results: As of January 10, 2021, nearly all nursing homes (93.6%) had reported at least one case of COVID-19 among their residents, more than three-quarters (76.9%) had reported at least one resident death, and most (83.5%) had experienced at least 1 week in the top decile of weekly incidence. In analyses adjusted for facility and county-level characteristics, we found generally consistent relationships between higher nursing home quality ratings and lower COVID-19 incidence and mortality, as well as with fewer high-incidence weeks.

Conclusion: Nursing home quality ratings are associated with COVID-19 incidence, mortality, and persistence. Nursing homes receiving five-star ratings, for overall quality as well as for each domain, had lower COVID-19 rates among their residents.

Keywords: COVID-19; long-term care; nursing homes; quality of care.