Moore-Few recognized for staffing stability practices It’s no secret that long-term care centers across the nation have trouble with employee turnover rates. Staff retention should be a top priority among nursing home administrators. Recently, Moore-Few Care Center, a service of Nevada Regional Medical Center, was recognized for its exceptional retention practices, ranking in the top three of 21 competing facilities in the state of Missouri. Primaris—Missouri’s Quality Improvement Organization— works with select nursing homes across the state on a variety of patient safety projects. Primaris supports progress in areas that enhance the quality of patient care, such as turnover. In an effort to compile a list of best practices for staff retention, Primaris asked nursing homes to submit their staff stability practices, offering a cash prize to the best entries. According to Deborah Finley, Director of Nursing Home and Physician Office Programs at Primaris, “National studies show, if a home can maintain staff, then the quality of care they provide is better. It leads to a higher quality of life for residents. And for many facilities, competition in wages, makes retention difficult.” Moore-Few Care Center’s approach to staff retention incorporates a great deal of ongoing teamwork, which has assisted them in sustaining improvement. More specifically, they have taken a quality improvement approach to staff retention and have established a dedicated team in charge of assessing and responding to changes in staff retention rates. Denise Sloniker, Administrator at MFCC, stated, “Staff retention is very important, not just because of the expense involved in turnover but because of quality of care. The highest quality of care comes from employees that work day after day getting to know each resident. Learning what the resident needs, wants, expects and bonding with them to become like extended family takes time – a long time. We are very proud to receive this ward.” MFCC will be featured on the Primaris web site as the retention tip of the month at www.primaris.org/Nursing Homes.