This study examined the construct validity of the physical functioning and cognition scales of the federally mandated Minimum Data Set (MDS) via Rasch analysis. We performed a secondary analysis of retrospective MDS data collected by the Department of Veteran Affairs Austin Automation Center. Items demonstrated unidimensionality and represented two separate constructs: physical functioning and ...

Many cognitively impaired nursing home (NH) residents are excluded from interviews measuring quality of life or care based on the belief that these residents cannot accurately answer questions. These exclusions are based on subjective criteria and ignore individual differences among cognitively impaired NH residents. This study describes a screening rule based on four minimum data set (MDS) ind...

BACKGROUND The discharge report is a basic document at the end of a care process, and is a key element in the coding process, since its correct wording, reliability and completeness are factors used to determine the hospital production. MATERIAL AND METHODS From a hypothesis based on the analysis of the consistency between the discharge report and data collected from the routine clinical note...

Functionality, as measured by activities of daily living (ADL), is the most important predictor of the cost of nursing home care. Data from a field-test version of the federally mandated Minimum Data Set (MDS) were examined using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and recursive partitioning methods to determine the relationships between ADL limitations and nursing cost (wage-weighted nursing time) am...

This study examines how the demographic characteristics of the top management team in 236 nursing homes can affect the adoption of innovations. The computerization of the Minimum Data Set (MDS) is the innovation we examine, and tenure, education, and involvement in a professional society are the demographic characteristics investigated. Controlling for 10 organizational and environmental factor...

BACKGROUND This manuscript describes a method for adjustment of nursing home quality indicators (QIs) defined using the Center for Medicaid & Medicare Services (CMS) nursing home resident assessment system, the Minimum Data Set (MDS). QIs are intended to characterize quality of care delivered in a facility. Threats to the validity of the measurement of presumed quality of care include baseline ...

Handover is defined as the communication of information between individuals and teams of healthcare providers to support the transfer of patient care and maintain professional responsibility and accountability. Poor handovers are increasingly recognized as potentially dangerous for patient safety and are associated with adverse events. One suggested method to improve the timely and efficient ex...

Soil contamination is one of the major threats constraining proper functioning of the soil and thus provision of ecosystem services. Remedial actions typically only address the chemical soil quality by reducing total contaminant concentrations to acceptable levels guided by land use. However, emerging regulatory requirements on soil protection demand a holistic view on soil assessment in remedi...

The degree set of a graph is the set of its degrees. Kapoor et al. [Degree sets for graphs, Fund. Math. 95 (1977) 189-194] proved that for every set of positive integers, there exists a graph of diameter at most two and radius one with that degree set. Furthermore, the minimum order of such a graph is determined. A graph is 2-self- centered if its radius and diameter are two. In this paper for ...