Medical Quality Indicators for nursing home

The Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) is responsible for calculating and publishing «medical quality indicators» in the area of nursing homes on an annual basis. This mandate based on art. 59a of the Health Insurance Act (RS 832.10; before art. 22a of the Health Insurance Act). Based on this article, care providers must provide the competent federal authorities with the data required to monitor the application of the provisions of the Health Insurance Act concerning the economic nature and quality of care services. Nursing homes in Switzerland are thus obliged to provide the data required to calculate medical quality indicators (Art. 59a, para. 1, letter f Health Insurance Act). In application of Art. 59a of the Health Insurance Act, suitable quality indicators were developed, evaluated and six were selected in 2009 - 2018 as part of a pilot project led by CURAVIVA Switzerland (federation ARTISET) with the FOPH, the Swiss Conference of Cantonal Health Directors (GDK) and the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) in the project committee.

Informative value of the publication

The title of this first edition of the publication is «Medical quality indicators 2019/2020: current state of data». Due to the quality of the data provided, the indicators were calculated with no risk adjustment and at the level of the canton (and not at the level of the nursing home). The following should therefore be noted when interpreting the values: As aggregates at the cantonal level, the selected indicators are no longer quality indicators for nursing homes and, as non-risk-adjusted indicators, they cannot be used as comparative instruments. The cantonal values of the indicators therefore do not allow any realistic interpretations or conclusions to be drawn with regard to the quality of the care services based on the Health Insurance Act provided by the nursing, either at the cantonal level or at the level of the nursing homes in the canton. The tables in this first edition present the data available for calculating the indicators in the nursing home sector and serve illustrative purposes. Under no circumstances should these indicators be used as a instrument for comparisons among nursing homes or among cantons. This publication is intended as a first step towards greater transparency with regard to the quality of the care services based on the Health Insurance Act and towards a future publication at the level of nursing homes.