Objective. In order to provide evidence for improving the quality of managers in elderly care institutions, this paper explored the situation of managers of elderly care institutions in a city in Central China under the national guidelines for the combination of medical and elderly health care. Design. A cross-sectional study carried out in a city in Central China was designed. Setting. The online questionnaire was distributed to the managers of six elderly care institutions in a city in Central China. Participants. The questionnaire was sent to 61 recipients; from this, 60 responses were obtained. Results. There was a 98% response rate. The study found that most managers in elderly care institutions were middle-aged, with low education level and years of management. The job mobility was high, and 27% of the managers had no relevant certificates. Management years had a significant influence on the rate of certificate holding (P<0.05). Some managers were less than 30 years old and had college degree or above, which indicated that people with young and high levels of education were more likely to become managers. However, there was no significant difference in educational level among managers of different ages (P>0.05). 56.6% of the managers have received provincial or municipal training, and few managers have received the national level training. The education level is positively related to the access to training opportunities. More than half of the managers earn less than ¥3000 a month. The study showed that the education level was positively related to the career growth space (P<0.05). Conclusions. Specialized training and high salary should be provided for managers to improve their elderly care skills and hence the quality of elderly care service. In addition, in order to improve the education level of managers, a long-term continuing education system should be established gradually. Through expanding the enrollment scale of the nursing school, carrying out training about elderly care skills, and issuing vocational skills certificates to those who pass the examination, the number of local nurses for the elderly will be increasing, and the quality of the elderly care service will be improving.

Background China's elderly population is growing rapidly. As the primary provider of geriatric care services, the expertise and care competencies of nursing staff directly affect the quality of services provided by elderly care institutions. To develop a geriatric care capacity needs questionnaire to provide an assessment tool for the implementation of geriatric care quality improvement and staff capacity building programs in elderly care institutions. Methods Based on the literature review, a questionnaire item pool was established. The initial questionnaire was formed by interviewing senior nursing staff and a pilot survey. The formal questionnaire was formed by testing the reliability and validity of the questionnaire. Results The Elderly Care Capacity Needs Questionnaire (ECCNQ) was composed of 12 dimensions. The Cronbach's Alpha coefficient of the total questionnaire was 0.860. The Spearman-Brown coefficient was 0.832, Guttman split-half coefficient was 0.83. The correlation coefficient between each dimension and the total questionnaire was 0.472–0.737. Conclusions The reliability and validity of the ECCNQ are acceptable, with good stability and effectiveness, which can be used as an evaluation tool for elderly care capacity needs.