by Geralyn Magan
The co-director of the LTSS Center joins Harvard’s David Grabowski in co-chairing the Finance System committee of the Moving Forward Nursing Home Quality Coalition.
Marc Cohen, co-director of the LeadingAge LTSS Center @UMass Boston, and David Grabowski, professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School, will lead one of seven committees recently established as part of a two-year, national initiative to improve nursing home quality.
The initiative, led by the Moving Forward Nursing Home Quality Coalition, will develop and test action plans that advance recommendations outlined in a major report released by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) in April 2022. The NASEM report, The National Imperative to Improve Nursing Home Quality, found nursing home care to be fragmented, unsustainable, and urgently in need of fundamental change.
The Moving Forward Nursing Home Quality Coalition is funded by The John A. Hartford Foundation and draws on leadership from LeadingAge, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), and other national organizations and subject matter experts. A diverse group of nursing home residents and care partners, family members, providers, and experts will participate in the coalition’s work. That work will be guided by a steering committee that includes many of the experts who helped write the NASEM report. In addition, seven committees will focus on specific recommendations from the report.
“Because our coalition’s purpose is to move nursing home quality forward, we are fortunate that so many action-oriented leaders and stakeholders have volunteered to join, to make real progress now,” said Alice Bonner, chair of the coalition and senior advisor for aging at IHI.
After a nationwide search, Moving Forward named more than 100 professionals and stakeholders to serve on the coalition’s seven committees. These professionals will engage with long-term care advocates, nursing home leaders and residents, federal and state policymakers, and others to prioritize between seven and 14 recommendations from the NASEM report. Each committee will prioritize one or two recommendations by topic, outline action plans, and begin testing and promoting those plans.
Cohen and Grabowski will lead the coalition’s Financing System committee, which will focus on the NASEM report’s goal to “create a more rational and robust financing system” for nursing home care. The other coalition committees include:
- Person-Centeredness, Culture Change, Care Planning & Quality of Life.
- Staffing & Well-Trained Workforce.
- Transparency & Accountability of Finances and Ownership.
- System of Quality Assurance.
- Quality Measurement & Continuous Quality Improvement.
- Health Information Technology.
“It is incredibly exciting to see the commitment and passion of this coalition’s members, most of whom have made improving nursing home care their life’s work,” said Terry Fulmer, president of The John A. Hartford Foundation. “The NASEM nursing home quality report gives us a comprehensive set of critical recommendations. Now we must continue to engage more individuals and organizations in the coalition and move forward with actionable reforms and support that will produce more equitable, person-centered, and high-quality care for all nursing home residents.”
For more information, visit the Moving Forward Coalition’s website.