This study of the quality of care provided to residents of nursing homes drew on the experiences of all Medicaid nursing home residents in Massachusetts over a three-year period. Frank Caro and Frank Porell developed a sophisticated method for measuring the quality of care provided by facilities based on computerized records that document client health status. They found that few facilities showed consistently superior or consistently inferior performance over time. Further, strength in one aspect of quality was not highly predictive of strength in other aspects of quality. The study reflects a national interest in the role of outcome measures in assuring health care quality.
Related work is ongoing.