Person-centered care practices and quality in Department of Veterans Affairs nursing homes: is there a relationship?

OBJECTIVE To examine variation in culture change to a person-centered care (PCC) model, and the association between culture change and a composite measure of quality in 107 Department of Veterans Affairs nursing homes. METHODS We examined the relationship between a composite quality measure calculated from 24 quality indicators (QIs) from the Minimum Data Set (that measure unfavorable events), and PCC summary scores calculated from the 6 domains of the Artifact of Culture Change Tool, using 3 different methods of calculating the summary scores. We also use a Bayesian hierarchical model to analyze the relationship between a latent construct measuring extent of culture change and the composite quality measure. RESULTS Using the original Artifacts scores, the highest performing facility has a 2.9 times higher score than the lowest. There is a statistically significant relationship between the composite quality measure and each of the 3 summary Artifacts scores. Depending on whether original scores, standardized scores, or optimal scores are used, a facility at the 10th percentile in terms of culture change compared with one at the 90th percentile has 8.0%, 8.9%, or 10.3% more QI events. When PCC implementation is considered as a latent construct, 18 low performance PCC facilities have, on an average, 16.3% more QI events than 13 high performance facilities. CONCLUSIONS Our results indicate that culture change to a PCC model is associated with higher Minimum Data Set-based quality. Longitudinal data are needed to better assess whether there is a causal relationship between the extent of culture change and quality.