Learn more
Click here for related health info and events.
Click here to sign up for our FREE e-newsletter.
Find a CHRISTUS facility
Search for a facility.
View a map of facilities.
Search a list of facilities.
Nursing Care Quality Measures -
Percent of Long-Stay Residents Who Lose Too Much Weight
-
Click here to view the nursing care quality measures for the CHRISTUS Health system as a whole.
-
Click here to view quality measures by facility.
This percentage addresses the ratio of long-stay residents who have lost too much weight. Lower percentages are better.
Why is this important?
A loss of 5 percent or more of body weight in one month is usually considered unhealthy. (For example, a 150 pound person should not lose more than seven-and-a-half pounds in one month.)
Too much weight loss can make a person weak, change how medicine works in the body, or cause the skin to break down, which can lead to pressure sores. Too much weight loss may mean that the resident is ill, refuses to eat, is depressed, or has a medical problem that makes eating difficult (like weakness caused by a stroke). It could also mean that the resident is not being fed properly, their medical care is not being properly managed, or that the Nursing Care Center’s nutrition program is poor.
To help prevent unhealthy weight loss, it is important that the resident’s diet is balanced and nutritious, and that staff spend enough time feeding people who can’t feed themselves.
Sometimes, however, it may be necessary for a person to lose weight for medical reasons. In these cases, the medical staff may plan in advance for the resident to lose weight on a special weight loss program, but the person should not lose more than five percent of their body weight in one month.
The data included on CHRISTUS Health’s nursing care centers as well as U.S. and state averages for this measure were provided by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
