Consistent assignment is one of the eight goals that are part of the Advancing Excellence in America’s Nursing Home Campaign, a national initiative designed to help nursing facilities achieve excellence in their residents’ quality of care and quality of life.

The campaign’s website offers a wide range of tools to assist facilities in moving toward successful consistent assignment (www.nhqualitycampaign.org/star_index.aspx?controls=resByGoal#goal2). Among them are key articles on the topic, an implementation guide, a tool for calculating consistent assignment, fact sheets for consumers and staff, and a webinar program.

“I would advise going to the Advancing Excellence website and learning from the information there before they try to reinvent the wheel. This is a good starting place for facilities considering or just beginning consistent assignment,” says Barbara Baylis.

The campaign offers several resources, including:

• Consistent Assignment—The Practice and the Experience (www.nhqualitycampaign.org)
• Consistent Assignment: Where Do You Start and How Do You Do It! (Video) (www.nhqualitycampaign.org)
• Implementing Change in Long Term Care (www.nhqualitycampaign.org)
• Campaign Goals and Objectives (www.nhqualitycampaign.org)  
• A Keystone for Excellence: Implementing Consistent Assignment Provides a Strong Foundation for Achieving the Goals of the Advancing Excellence in America’s Nursing Homes Program, Provider, July, 2007.
• A Case for Consistent Assignment: When Caregivers Get to Know Their Patients More Intimately, it Opens the Way for Improved Quality and a Reduction in Staff Turnover, Provider, June, 2006.
• Change Ideas for Consistent Assignment (www.qsource.org/NHQI/Consistent%20Assignment.pdf)    
• Nursing Home Adopts Consistent Caregiver Assignment (www.internetifmc.com/downloads/NHQI/Wyndcrest%20Adopts%20Consistent%20Assignment.pdf)