Benfer J Tucker GG, Cagle JG
Abstract
Objectives: Nursing home dementia specialty care units are highly publicized as beneficial for residents with dementia, but we know little about these units and what makes them "special." Leveraging primary data from a national survey of nursing home representatives and the LTCfocus data, this study aims to describe characteristics and features of dementia specialty care units and examine variations in nursing home quality ratings.
Design: National survey.
Setting and participants: Nationally, 256 nursing homes were randomly selected. Surveys with questions about dementia specialty care units were mailed to nursing home representatives in September/November 2023.
Methods: A total of 166 surveys were returned from 126 nursing homes and compared with LTCfocus data. Descriptive statistics and qualitative analyses were used to analyze data.
Results: A total of 105 (83.3%) respondents corroborated with LTCfocus data (kappa = 0.67, P < .05) regarding presence of dementia specialty care units. Of 21 respondents (16.7%) not corroborating, inconsistencies were almost equal regarding directions of mismatching. Seventy-seven nursing homes had dementia specialty care units, 44% of which were rated 4 to 5 stars for quality. Nonprofit nursing homes had higher star ratings compared with for-profit nursing homes. Wander gardens, interactive technologies, and restraints were used less frequently than personalized music, communal dining, locked units, outdoor access, and visiting animals on the units.
Conclusions and implications: Researchers using LTCfocus data to determine the presence of dementia specialty care units can be confident that designations are accurate. This study adds to our description of nursing home dementia specialty care units and provides insights into their presence in some nursing homes. Further research is needed to understand the relationship between profit status and quality ratings.