Data from the fourth quarter of 2016 demonstrates that Garden State nursing homes continue to improve their performance with respect to the use of anti-psychotic medications (APM) with long-stay residents and continue to outperform most other states.

At the end of 2016, N.J. nursing homes had an overall 11.5 percent prevalence rate for use of APMs for long-stay residents; this represents a 35.6 percent decrease from 2011 when the rate was 17.9 percent. New Jersey ranks fourth in the nation behind Hawaii (7.5 percent), Alaska (10 percent) and the District of Columbia (10.9 percent).

According to CMS data, in the fourth quarter of 2011, 23.9 percent of long-stay nursing home residents nationally were receiving an antipsychotic medication. Since then there has been a decrease of 33.2 percent to a national prevalence of 16 percent in the fourth quarter of 2016.