Like other Medicare data, MDS data are highly complex and require a substantial learning curve to use. Practical issues with acquiring and using MDS claims data: They have extensive online documentation and a very helpful help desk.įor investigators interested in working with MDS data collected within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Health Care System, the VA Geriatrics and Extended Care Data Analysis Center may be able to offer assistance. Information about Medicare claims data can be found at the Research Data Assistance Center (ResDAC), which contracts with CMS to support research using CMS data. MDS data may be merged with other Medicare files (for example, Part D prescription drug data, and Part A acute hospitalization data) to further enrich data available for analysis. Diagnoses and medications – selected diagnoses and recent use of selected medications (e.g.Symptoms and geriatric syndromes – for example pain, continence, falls, nutritional status, and many others.Psychosocial functioning – resident participation in activities and resident preferences.Behavioral symptoms – a number of items about behavioral symptoms common in dementia.Data on functional and cognitive status and mobility – MDS assessments contain standardized questions about several elements of functional and cognitive status and mobility.Also, several scales designed to summarize cognitive functioning and other domains that were created for and validated in MDS 2.0 may not be transportable to MDS 3.0, although new scales are being created for MDS 3.0 data.īoth versions of MDS contain a wealth of information. The lack of exact comparability between the 2 versions makes it difficult to evaluate longitudinal trends crossing MDS 2.0 to MDS 3.0 for a number of measures, although activities of daily living (ADL) measures are consistent in both versions.
The biggest innovation in the newer version was incorporation of assessments obtained from direct resident interviews, for example asking residents cognitive screening questions and about symptoms of depression, rather than relying on staff assessments of these conditions. Starting in October 2010, a new version (3.0) has been used. Prior to October 2010, the MDS version 2.0 assessment form was used. However, because MDS assessments are completed by front-line staff with variable levels of training who may be under time pressure, in most cases the data are less accurate than one might find in a dedicated research study with trained staff. Because these are clinical, rather than billing-focused assessments, they contain richer clinical data than is typically found in claims datasets. MDS assessments are completed by staff at the nursing facility, with different facilities using different types of staff for the purpose. MDS assessments occur more frequently during periods of care covered by the Medicare Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) benefit, which mainly covers short-stay rehabilitative and skilled nursing care in adults following hospitalization. Interim assessments are also required for patients who have had a recent major change in health status. For long-term residents, the maximum interval between assessments is 3 months. Per CMS requirements, MDS assessments occur on a set schedule. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) also collects MDS data for residents of its nursing homes these data are available through VA (see separate page on VA data). This includes long-stay residents as well as people in nursing homes for a brief period of rehabilitation or skilled nursing care following acute care hospitalization. MDS assessments are performed on all residents of nursing homes in the United States that are eligible to receive funding from Medicare or Medicaid. Who is in the data, and how are they followed? MDS data are collected and made available as one of the many data products of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). As such, MDS is an extremely valuable resource for studying function and disability on a large scale in vulnerable older adults. These assessments are performed and recorded by nursing home staff, and include information on a number of aging-relevant domains including functional and cognitive status, psychosocial functioning, geriatric syndromes, and life care wishes. MDS assessments are completed every 3 months (or more often, depending on circumstances) on nearly all residents of nursing homes in the United States. The Minimum Data Set (MDS) is a standardized assessment tool that measures health status in nursing home residents.
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