The Case for Malnutrition Quality Measures and Nutrition-Focused Quality Improvement Programs (QIPs) in US Skilled Nursing Facilities

As skilled nursing in the United States moves to a value-based model, malnutrition care remains a critical gap area that is associated with multiple poor health outcomes, including hospital readmissions and declines in functional status, psychosocial well-being, and quality of life. Malnutrition is often undiagnosed/untreated, even though it impacts up to half of skilled nursing facility (SNF) residents, and COVID-19 infections/related symptoms have likely further increased this risk. In acute care, malnutrition quality measures have been both developed/tested, and nutrition-focused quality improvement programs (QIPs) have been shown to reduce costs and effectively improve care processes and patient outcomes. Less is known about such quality initiatives in SNF care. This perspective paper reviewed malnutrition-related quality measures and nutrition-focused QIPs in SNFs and nursing home care. It identified that although the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has had a nursing home Quality Assurance and Performance Improvement (QAPI) program for 10 years and has had SNF quality measures for nearly 20 years, there are no malnutrition-specific quality measures for SNFs and very few published nutrition-focused QIPs in SNFs. This represents an important care gap that should be addressed to improve resident health outcomes as SNFs more fully move to a value-based care model.