Thirteen Alabama nursing homes were recognized today for achievements in health care quality at the American Health Care Association’s (AHCA) 7th Annual Quality Symposium in Austin, TX.

Achieving all four of the quality goals set forth by AHCA’s Quality Initiative are:

Only 153 nursing care centers nationwide earned this distinction.

The following facilities are part of the 805 that were recognized nationally for achieving three of the four AHCA Quality Initiative goals:

Announced in February 2012, the AHCA Quality Initiative aims to further improve the lives of individuals receiving care in long term and post-acute care centers by setting specific goals in four, key areas:

  • safely reduce hospital readmissions within 30 days during a skilled nursing stay by 15 percent;
  • increase staff stability by reducing nursing staff turnover by 15 percent;
  • achieve customer satisfaction, as evidenced by having 90 percent of residents and families willing to recommend their center to others, and;
  • safely reduce the off-label use of antipsychotics by 15 percent.

The AHCA Quality Symposium is an interactive and hands-on educational event that focuses on continuous quality improvement and its specific methodologies. Seminar tracks include leadership, measurement and analysis and improving performance. The quality achievers were recognized during a special session.

As a voluntary program, participating centers submit staff turnover data and customer satisfaction results to AHCA, while the national association analyzes the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Minimum Data Set statistics on hospital re-admissions and anti-psychotics.

For more information about AHCA’s Quality Initiative, visit qualityinitiative.ahcancal.org.

Click here to read about Alabama’s 2014 Achievers.