27. CPHA patient care data system for long-term care facilities.

Earlier efforts of the Commission on Professional and Hospital Activities (CPHA) to develop a patient care data system for long-term care facilities were discontinued for lack of user interest and shortage of funds; however, the facilities were encouraged to participate in the hospital data system (PAS) and to use optional data enteries for their special needs. New requirements by external agencies, however, have increased the demands for information on and by long-term care facilities for administration, continued stay review, medical care evaluation, and discharge planning. In its current developmental work, CPHA is giving special attention to methods of classifying long-term care patients, to integrating long-term and hospital inpatient data systems, and to educational programs for long-term care personnel in the use of data to carry out the requirements for quality control and utilization review.