Recently, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) launched a program designed to improve nursing home care for residents.  CMS’ Civil Money Penalty Reinvestment Program (https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Provider-Enrollment-and-Certification/SurveyCertificationGenInfo/LTC-CMP-Reinvestment.html) (CMPRP) is a three-year effort focused on the following goals:

• Improve dementia care
• Reduce adverse events
• Improve staffing quality, such as reducing turnover, improving staff retention and enhancing general staff performance.

To successfully achieve these goals, the CMPRP is engaging nursing homes in several ways, including through a series of toolkits. The following provides insight to the upcoming free toolkits:

• Nursing Home Staff Competency Assessment: Available now, this toolkit is a self-assessment tool to evaluate the behavioral and technical competencies of frontline and management staff.
• Nursing Home Employee Satisfaction Survey: Available now, this management workforce assessment focuses on staff satisfaction and the impact on turnover, recruitment and productivity, management and leadership training, as well as engagement and team building.
• Guide to Improving Nursing Home Employee Satisfaction: Coming soon, this tool will connect facilities to evidence-based resources to help the facility address opportunities for improvement identified through the use of the employee satisfaction survey.

The Nursing Home Employee Satisfaction Survey and the Nursing Home Staff Competency Assessment are both available now for download on the CMPRP website https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Provider-Enrollment-and-Certification/SurveyCertificationGenInfo/LTC-CMP-Reinvestment.html. Note that when you download materials, save the file to your desktop to be able to use all the functions.

The CMPRP tools and resources are not mandatory and using these tools does not guarantee compliance with Medicare and Medicaid participation requirements. The use of the tools is meant to assist facilities in building on a culture of quality.

In the meantime, if you have questions about the CMPRP, email CMP-info@cms.hhs.gov.