Accuracy of infection reporting in US nursing home ratings

To assess the accuracy of nursing home-reported data on urinary tract infections (UTIs), which are publicly reported on Nursing Home Care Compare, and pneumonia, which are not publicly reported.

We used secondary data for 100% of Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries in the United States between 2011 and 2017.

We identified Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries who were nursing home residents between 2011 and 2017 and admitted to a hospital with a primary diagnosis of UTI or pneumonia. After linking these hospital claims to resident-level nursing home-reported assessment data in the Minimum Data Set, we calculated the percentages of infections that were appropriately reported and assessed variation by resident- and nursing home-level characteristics. We developed a claims-based nursing home-level measure of hospitalized infections and estimated correlations between this and publicly reported ratings.

Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries who were nursing home residents and hospitalized for UTI or pneumonia during the study period were included.

Reporting rates were low for both infections (UTI: short-stay residents 29.1% and long-stay residents 19.2%; pneumonia: short-stay residents 66.0% and long-stay residents 70.6%). UTI reporting rates increased when counting additional assessments, but it is unclear whether these reports are for the same versus a newly developed UTI. Black residents had slightly lower reporting rates, as did nursing homes with more Black residents. Correlations between our claims-based measure and publicly reported ratings were poor.

UTI and pneumonia were substantially underreported in data used for national public reporting. Alternative approaches are needed to improve surveillance of nursing home quality.