GAO Faults State Nursing Home Inspections
The woes of nursing homes and, more importantly, those in their care continue. Already facing a major reform bill in Congress that has divided the industry, nursing homes came under fire this afternoon in a new report from the Government Accountability Office.
The GAO review of state-level nursing home inspections found that inspectors regularly overlooked major code violations in the care facilities. In reviews conducted from 2002 to 2007, federal inspectors found that their state-level counterparts missed violations of the gravest nature—those that could put a nursing home resident in immediate jeopardy and inflict actual harm—15 percent of the time. The potential for less serious harm was found in 70 percent of the federal reviews.
The report was requested by the Senate's Special Committee on Aging, which has been spearheading reform in the nursing home industry. The report, filed to the committee today, concludes that "poor quality of care—worsening pressure sores or untreated weight loss—in a small but unacceptably high number of nursing homes continues to harm residents or place them at risk of death or serious injury."
—Bret Schulte
Reader Comments
Need more direct care givers
I completely agree, nursing homes are not truly homes for those who live there, yes we aim more towards residents right thatn int he past. However, the ultimate goal is to hire lots of office staff anf quality assurance personel to make sure that all the paperwork is done perfectly to meet the needs of the over-regulating government. The thing they forgot to over-regulate and really need to is the number of CNAs to residents in LTC facilities. I know you cannot just have a magic, there needs to be a formula derived base don teh level of care needed by the residents who live there.
I currently work in a 47 bed LTC facility, and 97% of those people are very low-functioning and require total care. As a CNA, we literally run for 8 hours to try to meet patients needs, and we just can't. The administration and the governmetn are not aware of this because they spend their time in a padded desk chair with a lovely window view. Residents get inadequate care and have to wait a long time to get care because there are not enough CNAs. We here things like, 'compared to similar facilities of this size we have the appropriate number of aids.' News flash - no two facilities will ever be the same. Something needs to be done to open everyon's eyes and move from paperwork & profit-centric to resident-centric care.
Five Star Ratings
Maryville Daily Times
1/7/2009
Dear Editor;
I agree with Bernie Bowman’s, letter to the editor on December 31, 2008 (former CEO, Asbury, Inc.) assessment that simple answers are often wrong. Answers should be examined and carefully scrutinized. Data for my arguments are from CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) and NCCNHR (National Citizens' Coalition for Nursing Home Reform).
I agree that staffing should NOT be given so much weight in the rating system. As long as nursing homes meet the Federal and State staffing standards, why should they be penalized? After all, abundant staffing does not necessarily translate into better patient care. For example, one of the facilities within a fifty mile radius and with above average marks on both staffing and quality measure ratings also has the unique distinction of having 20% their residents’ with pressure sores and 22% with severe pain of those measured, NCCNHR had a similar argument. In the above case percentages are above the averages of all those nursing facilities in Tennessee and United States. Pressure ulcers should carry more weight in the rating system. Quality measures that NCCNHR believes are valid and strongly indicative of quality of care are: High-risk pressure ulcers, long-term catheters, restraints, UTIs and weight loss”. NCCNHR also issued a caution about using only one source as the sole source for determining the best nursing home for you. Some nursing home data available from CMS is flawed and should be corrected and new quality measure elements applied:
1. Not all nursing home ratings are based on all quality measures. One rating was based on less than 30% quality measures. CMS justified this as not enough residents are available to make this determination. But, in some cases they reported qualities measures 1% or less in nursing homes with 100 residents or less which calculates to be at least one resident. This lack of quality measures flaws the rating results and is unfair to nursing homes that are rated on all quality measures.
2. Trying to decipher the annual survey report on the CMS web site is like trying to judge the contents of a book by its title. A consumer should visit the nursing home and read the unedited report.
3. One of the most important quality measure, CMS could provide; is trends, that is, devise a method that would show a trend over time for all quality measures. This would alert the consumer to continuing and deteriorating nursing homes performance or the opposite.
What can I do as a consumer? One great source for consumer information is on the web, at NCCNHR, just Google this acronym in the search block.
Final analysis: Some nursing homes with low ratings are good nursing homes, while some of those nursing homes highly rated are not so good. As a matter of record and as a volunteer conservator, I have had several clients in one of Mr. Bowman’s facilities; each of them received excellent care.
Some of my experiences come from my service as Volunteer Ombudsman in several nursing homes in Blount County, thirteen years, a member and Chairman for Blount County Council on aging, and a member and Vice-Chairman for East Tennessee Council on Aging and disability.
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