Associations among health care workplace safety, resident satisfaction, and quality of care in long-term care facilities

Objective:
We performed an integrated cross-sectional analysis of relationships between long-term care work environments, employee and resident satisfaction, and quality of patient care.

Methods:
Facility-level data came from a network of 203 skilled nursing facilities in 13 states in the eastern United States owned or managed by one company. K-means cluster analysis was applied to investigate clustered associations between safe resident handling program (SRHP) performance, resident care outcomes, employee satisfaction, rates of workers’ compensation claims, and resident satisfaction.

Results:
Facilities in the better-performing cluster were found to have better patient care outcomes and resident satisfaction; lower rates of workers compensation claims; better SRHP performance; higher employee retention; and greater worker job satisfaction and engagement.

Conclusion:
The observed clustered relationships support the utility of integrated performance assessment in long-term care facilities.