The nursing facility surveys are funded by the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS). The assisted living surveys are funded by DHS and the Minnesota Board on Aging (MBA).

The Minnesota Department of Human Services and the Department of Health are required by state law to share quality information for all Medicaid-certified nursing facilities with the public. State law also requires DHS and MBA to measure and share quality information for assisted living.

Over the years, the State has developed and thoroughly tested a collection of resident and family consumer surveys in partnership with independent research firms to collect quality information. Resident surveys are conducted through in-person interviews. Family surveys are conducted by mail, online, and by phone.

• To increase facility awareness of resident and family perspectives of their services
• To aid facilities in making quality improvement plans
• To provide an online public report that will help people who are looking for a nursing facility make informed decisions about long-term care for themselves or their loved one(s).
  • Visit the Minnesota Nursing Home Report Card.
  • In addition to results from the resident and family surveys, the Report Card includes ratings of short stay/rehabilitative stays, information about the quality of care, inspection results, staffing, and costs.
• For more information and updates on when the assisted living facility ratings will be made available through the new assisted living public report card website, visit the webpage (COMING SOON).

Vital Research requires interviewers to follow protocols to mitigate the risk of spreading communicable diseases. Vital Research's detailed Infectious Disease Safety plan can be found on the project website.

DHS has conducted the Resident Survey in nursing facilities since 2005 and the Family Survey in nursing facilities since 2010. DHS uses lessons learned during prior year's interviews to make any needed improvements to the survey instruments.

In 2019 and 2020, DHS and MBA developed new Resident Quality of Life Surveys and Family Satisfaction Surveys for assisted living facilities. This is the third year the State is conducting resident and family surveys in assisted living facilities across the state. DHS and MBA will use lessons learned in the first two years of the project to improve the surveys this year.

Facilities are responsible for identifying one primary representative for each current resident at their facility. In nursing facilities, family surveys are only conducted for long-stay residents. Facilities include representative contact information in the census list securely submitted to Vital Research. Every resident representative will receive a mailed informational letter and can complete the survey on paper or online. Vital Research will also conduct phone interviews with representatives who did not complete paper or online surveys but would still like to participate.

Interviewers complete a comprehensive training that includes classroom instruction and practical experience conducting supervised interviews of residents. Interviewers learn how to administer a structured interview the same way to each resident. They are taught to approach each resident with a positive attitude, believing that the resident will be able to provide opinions about their experience at the facility.

If a resident offers no response or gives answers that are not responsive to four questions in a row, the interview is discontinued, and the resident is thanked for their time. If a resident becomes tired during an interview, the interviewer may return later in the day to complete the interview.Interviewers inform every resident that they can stop the interview at any time.

Interviewer training stresses that interviewers are to always remain neutral and are not there to observe/evaluate the facility themselves. Interviewers have a unique role, serving as the voice to hear and record resident opinions. Experienced Quality Assurance Mentors visit all interviewers, conducting quality assurance activities and providing reinforcement and corrective feedback.

Yes, only the interviewer will know what is said unless they see or hear anything that makes them concerned about a resident’s safety or health. In that case, they would have the responsibility to let Adult Protection know so they can help. . All surveys are recorded on a secure, handheld mobile device and submitted directly to an independent research organization, Vital Research. The survey uses identification numbers assigned by Vital Research to keep answers confidential.

Vital Research does not disclose the names of residents who participated in an interview. Individual resident surveys are destroyed at the end of the survey project. All results are reported as facility averages which ensures protection of individual respondents.

The interview is brief and takes approximately 15-20 minutes to complete.

Before their interview dates, facility staff securely share their latest resident census lists with Vital Research. Vital Research uses these lists to randomly choose residents to approach for an interview. The number of residents approached will depend on the number of residents at each facility.

On the day of scheduled interviews, each facility provides interviewers with a list of all residents who are in isolation and/or whose legal guardian has declined participation on their behalf. Interviewers remove these residents from their lists of eligible residents to interview.

The Resident Quality of Life Surveys for assisted living facilities and nursing facilities have been specifically designed and tested for use with this population, including residents with memory loss, cognitive impairments, and other disabilities.

By inviting residents across abilities and experiences to participate, the survey provides a robust picture of life in the facility. The philosophy of this survey is to be as inclusive as possible. A more inclusive survey process not only leads to more reliable, accurate results, it is ethical to try to include all residents' perspectives. Although residents are approached, they must be willing to participate and able to consent. It is up to the residents if they would like to complete the survey. If residents stop responding to survey questions, the interviewer will thank them for their time and end the interview early.

Researchers have found minimal differences in survey responses between residents in memory care units versus other residents. For more information, please refer to the NH and AL Report Card websites.

Click here for more information on the interview process

Interviewers are trained on techniques to include the responses of residents across the range of disabilities. The interviewer training program, which includes methods proven to achieve a high response rate, is based on Vital Research conducting over 300,000 resident interviews.

The interviewers are trained on how to interview residents with cognitive impairments, including how to handle challenging situations, and when to discontinue an interview if a resident is not willing or able to participate. Interviews discontinued because the resident is unable to respond are not used in scores or public reporting.

Some interviewer techniques include:

• Providing yes/no answer choices
• Knowing when to stop an interview (e.g., four non-responsive answers in a row)
• How to appropriately redirect a resident back to the survey question, as needed
• When to repeat a question or ask a probe
• Asking an approved probe question to clarify survey questions if needed
• Using large-print answer cards so residents can see possible answer choices
• Being flexible by interviewing residents at different times of the day, as needed

Allowing an independent third party (Vital Research) to randomly sample residents minimizes the potential for bias.

Many studies have shown that staff and families provide different answers from one another and different answers from residents. Each group's opinions are important, but they cannot substitute for one another.

Facilities with an assisted living or assisted living with dementia care license through the Minnesota Department of Health and a capacity to serve five or more residents will be required to participate in survey data collection if contacted by Vital Research. See Minnesota Session Law 2023, Regular Session, Chapter 50, Article 1, Section 28.

For the purposes of conducting the resident and family surveys, Vital Research, working on behalf of DHS under contract, has authority to request and receive contact information of residents and associated key representatives from assisted living providers. See Minnesota Session Law 2023, Regular Session, Chapter 50, Article 1, Section 28.

The 2022-2023 survey results will be the first year reflected in the Assisted Living Report Card. The survey results will support star ratings and quality measure scores for individual facilities which will be shared on the public Minnesota Assisted Living Report Card website.

2024 survey results will also be reflected once they are available. For more information and updates on when these ratings will be made available through this new public report card website, visit the Assisted Living Report Card project webpage.