Overview
Dataset Summary
The Payroll-Based Journal (PBJ) dataset, maintained by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), contains facility-reported direct care staffing information for nursing homes based on payroll and other auditable data sources.
Facilities are mandated to submit daily staffing data, including nursing and therapy workforce hours. The data are publicly available and can be linked to other facility-level datasets, such as COVID-19 transmission data, patient outcomes, and Nursing Home Compare star ratings. PBJ is widely used for research on staffing adequacy, workforce stability, and nursing home quality.
Caveats
- Must be linked with patient census data to meaningfully calculate staffing ratios, turnover, and tenure.
- Reporting accuracy depends on facility compliance and data submission quality.
- Facility-level data do not include individual resident-level clinical detail.
- Analyses may require careful data cleaning due to reporting variability.
Examples of Outcomes Examined
- Staffing levels (e.g., hours per resident-day)
- Staff turnover and tenure
- Patient census trends
- Associations between staffing and facility-level outcomes
- Relationship between staffing and star ratings
Topic
Aging and Long-Term Care, Health Workforce, Long-Term Care & Skilled Nursing
Resource Type
Dataset
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