ABSTRACT
Quality Instrument (Observable Indicators) was designed to measure the multidimensional concept of nursing home care quality. 10• ll The creators ofthe Ob-
50 servable Indicators anticipated its use as a quality improvement tool for nursing homes and as a heuristic guide for consumers, including older adults and their family members, evaluating a facility prospectively when considering a facility for a friend or relative. 12
subscales: communication (5 items), care (9 items), staff (6 items), environment (16 items), and home/family involvement (6 items). The 16 items of
60 the environment subscale are further divided into 3 subscales: space (5 items), odor/cleanliness/condition (5 items), and lighting/noise/atmosphere (6 items). Responses to all items are selected from a 5-point Likerttype scale, with 5 as the response indicating the highest
65 quality and 1 as the response indicating the lowest quality.
