Glossary
Every term in the guide, in one plain-language list.
- SNF
- Skilled Nursing Facility; a home where trained nurses care for residents.
- HPRD
- Hours Per Resident Day; nurse hours ÷ residents, summed over the quarter.
- PBJ
- Payroll-Based Journal; the quarterly, payroll-backed report of worked-and-paid nurse hours (agency hours included).
- MDS
- Minimum Data Set; the resident assessment that drives case-mix/acuity.
- Case-mix / case-mix hours
- Acuity adjustment (PDPM nursing categories) applied to raw hours before scoring; formerly "expected hours."
- RN / LPN / CNA
- Registered Nurse / Licensed Practical Nurse / Certified Nursing Assistant; RN+LPN+CNA = total nurse hours.
- Turnover (eligibility vs. event)
- Eligible = 120+ hrs in a 90-day period; event = an eligible worker then has 90 consecutive days with no recorded shift, tied to the employee system ID.
- Lane / cut-point
- A row in a measure’s points table mapping a value range to points; frozen nationally.
- Star bands
- The point totals that map to 1–5 staffing stars (<155 … 320–380).
- QM
- Quality Measures; the separate health-outcomes star.
- CMS / Care Compare
- CMS is the federal agency that runs the rating; Care Compare is the public site that displays it.
- Administrator
- The facility’s top manager; departures are a scored measure.
- VBP
- Value-Based Purchasing; Medicare program tying a withhold to quality performance.
- Auto-1★
- Forced 1★ for HPRD non-submission, 4+ days/quarter with zero RN hours, or audit failure.