06/12/2025

Ombudsman Outlines Changes to Family Resident Survey

On a call earlier today, Deputy State Long-term Care Ombudsman Erin Pettegrew outlined the Department’s recent evaluation of the Family and Resident Surveys, and plans for changes to both the surveys and the survey processes, to begin later this year. These changes include: 

• Conducting both surveys annually, and more-frequent reporting of results via the Long-term Care Quality Navigator mid-survey and post-survey. 
• Launching a quality improvement guide in partnership with Person-Centered Care Coalition, Excel Academy, PREP. 
• Evaluating survey results to assess the experiences of different populations, including those in memory care. 
• Piloting a short-stay survey in 2025, with the goal of developing recommendations for this survey in 2026.
• Continuing to boost visibility of LTC Quality Navigator.

Additionally, the survey items were revised based on feedback gathered during the last survey cycle to improve the clarity of questions and eliminate duplication of concepts in the survey. The survey length is roughly the same as previous iterations. 

The most impactful change is the beginning later this year, the resident and family surveys will be administered concurrently, with the Ombudsman capturing information at the same time as they retrieve the census lists from Ohio facilities. This, combined with the more-frequent release of survey results, will improve sensitivity of the data and enable providers to meaningfully use data in performance improvement project. Previously, the significant lag in reporting meant these data were less useful for improvement. 

The Department has posted the timeline for this year’s survey process on its website, and will be adding the changes to the survey tool in the coming weeks. Additionally, Pettegrew noted that they have plans for a provider webinar focused on the changes in early summer. 

Questions regarding these changes may be directed to Stephanie DeWees, Quality & Regulatory Specialist for Long-term Care, at sdewees@leadingageohio.org.