Researchers at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) have developed a self-evaluation tool for providers that are interested in measuring the level of readiness, implementation, and sustainability of culture change initiatives in their own facilities. 

The tool, known as “The Artifacts of Culture Change,” is the result of a study of what providers and researchers deemed to be “significant things that are changed and are different in facilities that have adopted culture change, compared with other homes.”

The tool allows facilities to gauge their own progress and conduct their own benchmarking on where they are on a culture change journey.

The data will be used by researchers to determine what major concrete changes nursing facilities have made to care and workplace practices, policies and schedules, increased resident autonomy, and improved environment.

Developed by Carmen Bowman, owner of consulting firm Edu-Catering: Catering Education for Compliance and Culture Change in LTC, and Karen Schoeneman, deputy director of the CMS Division of Nursing Homes, the tool is one of several available to assess culture change transformations.

The tool is not connected to enforcement, is not punitive, and no surveyors will be collecting data from providers using this tool.

Providers are encouraged to complete the tool online at www.artifactsofculturechange.org.

Source: CMS and the Pioneer Network