This chartbook provides descriptive data on the entire population of longer-stay nursing home residents in the country in calendar year 2001 and categorizes them according to the rurality of the nursing home in which they receive care in an effort to address questions related to residents’ characteristics and quality of care.

Data sources: The data was obtained from the Minimum Data Set for Nursing Home Resident Assessment and Care Screening (MDS). These data were procured from the national data archive administered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Organization of Volume: Detailed tables containing resident level data by region and degree of rurality are presented for the nation as a whole, for each of the ten CMS regions, and for each of the states.

Key findings:

1. The general population in rural areas has a higher percentage of individuals likely to need long-term care services, particularly those over age 85.

2. In all locales, the most common route to a nursing home was through an acute care setting.

3. The proportion of residents entering a nursing home from a private home, with or without services, increased with rurality.

4. There is no clear effect of locale on the level of cognitive impairment.

5. Among longer-stay residents, severe ADL impairment decreases as rurality increases.

6. The Total Case-Mix Index decreases with rurality.

7. Ten (10) of the 19 indicators of potential quality problems are higher in all three non-metropolitan locales than in purely urban settings.