PEAK: Quality Improvement through Person-Centered Care

The Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services (KDADS) is committed to ensuring high-quality services for Kansas nursing home residents. For nearly 20 years, KDADS has been recognizing nursing homes for successfully implementing person-centered care, commonly known as Promoting Excellent Alternatives in Kansas, or PEAK. From the beginning of PEAK, KDADS pursued two primary goals:

  1. To award and recognize homes accomplishing significant culture change; and
  2. To educate others about the culture change movement and the accomplishments being made in Kansas.

Beginning in 2012, PEAK expanded from a recognition program to a pay-for-performance Medicaid program in an effort to speed up the rate of adoption of person-centered care practices in Kansas nursing homes. The program had an overwhelming response, with 125 homes enrolling in PEAK 2.0 the first year. It was then that KDADS arranged a partnership with the Kansas State University (KSU) Center on Aging to administer the program.

KDADS continues to manage payment of incentives earned, but the KSU Center on Aging handles program administration including application, education and evaluation. Please visit the KSU Center on Aging website to learn more about the program.

For further information on the program contact: Trescia Power or the PEAK Team at [email protected].

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Kansas-State Center on Aging Accepting New Participating Homes in PEAK Program

Promoting Excellent Alternatives in Kansas Nursing Homes (PEAK), a senior living program administered by Kansas State University's Center on Aging for the state of Kansas, is seeking new facilities for enrollment in its 2024 fiscal year program. The deadline to register is April 15, 2023.

PEAK facilities employ person-centered care that shifts focus from task-oriented care to individual care and makes resident preferences and quality-of-life as essential as clinical and supportive care. Examples of person-centered care include supporting personal preferences such as when an individual wants to wake, what time a resident prefers to eat, or empowering staff to notice small changes in resident behavior or routine. You may be surprised to find that your facility has already implemented many of these practices.

Throughout their engagement in the program, PEAK Nursing Facilities receive multifaceted training, support and resources and may become eligible for tiered Medicaid financial incentives. Beginning in July 2023, the program will offer nine incentive levels – up from six – with increasing payments as the homes demonstrate person-centered care outcomes. Additionally, homes have more flexibility in selecting how many of the 12 core areas of person-centered care they will work to implement. Facilities continue to receive support through all tiers of the program. 

These changes are being implemented based on feedback from providers and the PEAK advisory board.

Homes who want to participate in the program should fill out the online registration form. Upon completion, a confirmation page with instructions and a link to complete the Kansas Culture Change Instrument will be displayed. Six people from each facility must complete this survey electronically by April 15, 2023. Facilities interested in learning more about PEAK can visit www.hhs.k-state.edu/aging/research/peak20.

Nursing facility consumers can see a list of participating PEAK homes at www.hhs.k-state.edu/aging/research/peak20/homes.html.

Research by the Center on Aging shows that person-centered care results in higher resident satisfaction, especially as homes fully implement all the core areas of care. According to the study, the most significant clinical finding showed residents living in person-centered care homes were 49% less likely to have severe depression than homes not participating in the PEAK program.

The Center on Aging at K-State is an internationally recognized center for innovative teaching, research, discovery and outreach in the field of gerontology.

Kansas PEAK Advisory Team

The Advisory Team shall council KDADS leadership in championing person-centered care and provide guidance regarding specific PEAK-related issues while providing suggestions to promote a continually improving program.

FileTypeSizeUploaded onDownload
Kansas PEAK Advisory Team CharterPDF136.27 KB16 May, 2022 Download
PEAK Advisory Team Application FormDOCX15.82 KB07 Jul, 2021 Download

PEAK Award Winners 2023-2024

  • Mentor Homes - Level 5

  • Sustained Person-Centered Care Homes - Level 4

  • Person-Centered Care Home - Level 3