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Skilled nursing facilities with a high rate of employee satisfaction also have fewer survey deficiencies and a higher Five Star quality rating, according to research announced yesterday at the American Health Care Association annual convention and expo in Phoenix.

National Research Corporation, a firm specializing in patient satisfaction analysis, used data from its My InnerView solution to gauge employee satisfaction across the post-acute continuum.

“Every other measure of [SNF] quality is correlated with employee satisfaction,” the report states. “The top two drivers of both resident and family recommendation are both related to employees — care (concern) of staff and competency of staff.”

Comparing its employee satisfaction numbers with Nursing Home Compare data, NRC found that SNFs with more satisfied staffs are more highly rated and have fewer deficiencies — although it is not possible to say conclusively, based on this type of analysis, that more satisfied workers provide better care, the report authors stated. They also considered nurses as a stand-alone group of workers, and found a slightly stronger correlation between nurse satisfaction and a SNF’s rate of deficiencies, compared with overall employee satisfaction and the rate of deficiencies.

Previous NRC reports have found a trend of high and gradually increasing customers satisfaction scores for SNFs, which held true this year: 88% of residents would recommend their provider, and 87% of families.

The report also includes data on assisted living, independent living, home health and hospice. Assisted living companies have come under scrutiny for potentially taking on higher acuity residents than they can care for, the report notes. However, 91% of residents and 90% of families rated their assisted living provider as “good” or “excellent” in the “sufficiency of healthcare needs” category, according to NRC.

Click here to access the complete report.