5-Star Nursing Homes : how many D's does it take?
Jeremy Rutter
Nonprofit Long-Term Care CEO, PhD candidate, gerontologist.Advocate for elder care.
The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released their updated State-Leve Health Inspection Cut Points for U. S nursing homes this week.?The data reveals a significant disparity in state enforcements of federal CMS regulations as well as a serious flaw in the Five Star rating system. The Five Star system was developed to inform residents and family members of the quality of nursing homes. However, significant disparities exist in how often a nursing home is cited for deficiencies based upon state level cut points.?For example, in Washington, a nursing home can average 12.3 D-level deficiencies each inspection cycle and still be listed as a 5-Star nursing home, whereas in Georgia and New Hampshire, nursing homes have to average 1 D-level deficiency or less per inspection cycle to be listed as a 5-Star nursing home. This presents an even great problem for residents who may live near a bordering state such as Illinois, whose 5-Star nursing homes average 5.1 D-level deficiencies per survey and Wisconsin where the average is 1.8. Want to know where your state stands??Reach out to me directly or comment below and I will post your state’s data.?
2x Healthcare Founder, Consultant for Workforce Management, Chief Product Officer, App Development
2 年Also disturbing is the staffing component now rates "turnover" as 33% of that rating. I have seen 2 star facilities with understaffed Nurses get a bump to 3 stars because they keep their underperforming nurses, and 4 star facilities drop to 2 stars for a very grey criteria they classify as "turnover". Examples: If an LPN gets an RN license that adds to turnover.