Nursing Home Resident Surveys

The CAHPS Nursing Home Surveys include two separate instruments for nursing home residents: one for those who live in a nursing home and another for those who have been discharged after a short stay.

• Long-Stay Resident Survey. This survey asks about the experiences of long-stay residents (more than 100 days) currently living in nursing home facilities. Unlike other CAHPS surveys, it is designed to be administered in person.
• Discharged Resident Survey. This survey asks about the experiences of residents recently discharged from nursing homes after short stays (no more than 100 days). It is designed to be administered by mail. 

To download the Nursing Home Residents Surveys, go to: Get Nursing Home Surveys and Instructions.

Learn about the development of the Resident Surveys.

Topics Covered

The two resident questionnaires are nearly identical in substance; the only difference is that the Discharged Resident Instrument also covers therapy services (and may cover the transition out of nursing home, depending on the results of ongoing analyses).

The instruments cover the following topics:

• Environment
• Care
• Communication and Respect
• Autonomy
• Activities

Quality of life. Both instruments ask respondents about the quality of care they have received at their nursing home and their quality of life in the facility. These are currently the only CAHPS instruments that ask about quality of life. The quality-of-care questions generally use a 0-10 rating scale, while the quality-of-life questions generally follow a "yes/no/sometimes" response format.