Evaluating Nursing Home Quality Measures: Evidence from Nursing Home Closures

This project analyzes whether existing nursing home quality metrics provide unbiased information about the nursing home’s causal impact on patient health. We test for bias by comparing the impact on patient health outcomes, when a high- versus low-quality nursing home closes. We analyze the effects of a closure on physical health, mental health, cognitive capacity, and activities of daily living in the area where the closure took place. Additional project research will investigate the extent to which racial health disparities among nursing home residents are driven by patients from different racial and ethnic groups utilizing nursing homes that differ in their causal effects on patient health.