The Sharing Innovations in Quality (SIQ) website is an electronic library of resources for long term care. It includes summaries of clinical standards and guidelines useful to surveyors and to professionals in the nursing home setting. In addition, the site contains summaries of reference material cited in the newly revised CMS Guidance to Surveyors for Long Term Care Facilities. SIQ is sponsored by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and hosted by the American Institutes for Research (AIR). The resources summarized on this site are reviewed and updated annually to verify that they remain current.

Origins of SIQ

The SIQ resource library is an outgrowth of the Sharing Innovations in Quality project that CMS carried out from 1996-1999 in collaboration with national stakeholder groups and State survey agencies. That project produced the original SIQ resource library, which housed both innovative ideas submitted by nursing homes and approved by the group, and a limited selection of clinical standards and guidelines submitted by national clinical organizations.

In September, 2001 CMS contracted with AIR to expand the content of the original SIQ resource library and to develop and host the new website. Since that time, the original clinical standards and guidelines have been updated, many others added, and we expect more to be posted periodically for your use. Additionally, references cited in the newly revised CMS Guidance to Surveyors are summarized and added to the resource library.

SIQ Activities

CMS has undertaken this effort in order to assist you in locating from among thousands of publications, those that are the most authoritative to guide (1) professionals who are planning and/or delivering clinical services to residents in nursing homes, and (2) surveyors who are evaluating that care.

How are resources identified for inclusion in the resource library?

The clinical standards and guidelines summarized in SIQ are generally developed and/or endorsed by leading national clinical organizations or federal government agencies. AIR works with these organizations as well as CMS to identify timely, important clinical topics and issues related to the nursing home population. Next, AIR employs a variety of means, including ongoing consultation with national clinical organizations and Internet searches, to identify potentially useful clinical standards and guidelines to address these topics. AIR is assisted in this effort by a clinical consultant (a retired nurse and former CMS surveyor supervisor) who brings her expertise to bear on the identification, review, and summary of potential clinical standards.

The references cited in the newly revised CMS Guidance to Surveyors are directly relevant to topics important for surveyors and nursing home staff, and are therefore summarized and added to the resource library.

How are the summaries developed?

Once a resource is identified for inclusion, AIR develops a detailed summary, which is then reviewed and approved by the owning organization, author, or publisher. In some cases, organizations grant SIQ permission to include the full text resource in the electronic library in addition to a summary.