To encourage person-centered care, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid require nursing homes to measure resident preferences using the Preferences Assessment Tool (PAT). No known research has examined the implications of respondent type (i.e., resident, proxy, staff) on preference importance; therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare the importance of preferences depending on which respondent completed the PAT. Participants included 16,111 Veterans discharged to community-based skilled nursing facilities after hospitalization for heart failure. A majority (95%) of residents completed the PAT compared to proxy (3%) and staff (2%). Proxy responders were both more and less likely to indicate individual preferences as important compared to residents. Staff members were consistently less likely to indicate all preferences as important compared to residents. Findings from this study emphasize the need for proxy and staff to find methods to better understand residents’ preferences when residents are not able to participate in assessments.

为了鼓励以人为本的护理，医疗保险和医疗补助中心要求疗养院使用偏好评估工具 (PAT) 衡量居民的偏好。没有已知的研究检查受访者类型（即居民、代理人、员工）对偏好重要性的影响；因此，本研究的目的是比较偏好的重要性，具体取决于哪个受访者完成了 PAT。参与者包括 16,111 名因心力衰竭住院后出院到社区专业护理机构的退伍军人。与代理 (3%) 和工作人员 (2%) 相比，大多数 (95%) 居民完成了 PAT。与居民相比，代理响应者表示个人偏好的可能性越来越小。与居民相比，工作人员始终不太可能表明所有偏好都很重要。本研究的结果强调，当居民无法参与评估时，代理人和工作人员需要找到更好地了解居民偏好的方法。