Three resident satisfaction measures developed by the American Health Care Association have received an endorsement from the National Quality Forum, the provider group announced Wednesday.

The association’s CoreQ surveys gauge resident and family experiences with care, staff, discharge needs and overall satisfaction. The measures include a discharge survey for short-stay residents, and surveys for both long-stay residents and their families.

The CoreQ surveys, which were released last year, are currently the only known and independently tested measure of consumer satisfaction among long-term care providers. They received an endorsement from the NQF following “extensive testing and evaluation,” AHCA said.

“The importance of measuring resident, patient and family satisfaction as part of quality improvement cannot be stressed enough,” said David Gifford, MD, MPH, the group’s Senior Vice President of Quality and Regulatory Affairs, in a statement.

Mark Parkinson, president and CEO of AHCA, added that the surveys can give providers “valuable benchmarking data and information to take quality of care to the next level.”

Two CoreQ measures for assisted living providers are expected to be submitted to the NQF by AHCA’s sister organization, the National Center for Assisted Living, in the coming months.