Aiming for Star Performance: The Relationship Between Setting Targets and Improved Nursing Home Quality of Care

These analyses demonstrate consistently greater relative improvement among nursing homes that set STAR targets for the daily physical restraint or high-risk pressure ulcer quality measures than among nursing homes that did not set these targets. Although the absolute improvement is relatively small-less than 1% for each quality measure-the number of residents affected is substantial. If STAR targets were routinely incorporated into practice and this level of improvement realized by all nursing homes nationwide, an estimated 45,000 residents would experience better pressure ulcer and physical restraint outcomes at the end of 1 year.