Nursing Home Quality was created to address two critical needs related to the national implementation of the Quality Indicator Survey (QIS):

1. To train surveyors and certify survey agency trainers in QIS under contract to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), as the QIS is expanded.

2. To provide affordable and reliable QIS educational programs and QA systems to nursing homes so that the QIS tools can be used for ongoing quality improvement and assurance.

CMS contract: Nursing Home Quality competed with other small businesses and was awarded a 5‐year CMS contract to train survey agency staff throughout the country to conduct the QIS. To carry out this contract, we use the exact training methods and materials developed by the University of Colorado under contract to CMS. All QIS development and refinement activities are still conducted by the University of Colorado under a separate CMS contract.

abaqis Quality Assurance System: Our web‐based QIS Quality Assurance System is the only web-based program tied directly to the Quality Indicator Survey, using the same rates and threshold comparisons as those used by surveyors. abaqis is specifically designed for use by nursing home providers, providing reports that are focused on quality assurance and quality improvement.