A Silver Tsunami of Baby Boomers is set to overwhelm Texas nursing homes.

As Baby Boomers reach retirement, a perfect storm could overwhelm nursing homes: A surge in the number of aging Texans, known as the Silver Tsunami; a decline in family caregivers; and a long term care  sector already deprived of adequate and sustainable funding.

Skilled Nursing Care Centers

The new quality metrics for skilled nursing centers have been chosen carefully. First, they are all tied together and reinforce each other. Success in one area will lead to success in the others. Second, we have aligned all four goals with top priorities for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) as well as Managed Care Organizations (MCOs), and with federal mandates that link financial outcomes to quality performance. The new targets are:

• Safely reduce long-stay and short-stay hospitalizations by improving 10 percent-or maintain a rate of 10 percent or less;
• Improve functional outcomes (self-care and mobility) by 15 percent;
• Improve long-stay and short-stay satisfaction by 10 percent-or achieve a rate of 90 percent or greater; and
• Safely reduce the off-label use of antipsychotics by 10 percent-or maintain a rate of 8 percent or less in long-stay residents, and maintain a rate of 1 percent or less in short-stay residents.

Learn more about the skilled nursing goals at qualityinitiative.ahcancal.org.

Assisted Living Communities

The Quality Initiative is also inspiring the state-based, assisted living profession to collect and report national quality data without a government mandate. Similar to the skilled nursing goals, all the assisted living goals work in tandem. The three-year goals for assisted living communities are:

• Reduce turnover among direct care staff¬ to a rate of 50 percent or less;
• At least 90 percent of customers (residents and/or families) are satisfied with their experience;
• Safely reduce hospital readmissions within 30 days of hospital discharges to a rate of 20 percent or less; and
• Safely reduce the off¬-label use of antipsychotics to a rate of 15 percent or less.

Learn more about the assisted living goals at qualityinitiative.ncal.org.