Project
aims to improve care quality
Nine West Side nursing homes volunteer for pilot program on pain
management
Carla K. Johnson
Staff writer
AT
A GLANCE
ON THE NET: Ratings
To find a nursing home's ratings, go to www.medicare.gov.
Click on ''Nursing Home Compare.'' Select ''Washington.'' Select ''Spokane County.''
Select a nursing home, then click on ''Quality Measures'' and follow the instructions.
To request a printed version, call
1-800-MEDICARE
(800-633-4227)
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Nine nursing homes
on the West Side are working with quality experts to improve pain management in
a multimillion-dollar federal project. No Eastern Washington institutions are
receiving the intensive help -- at least for now.
Eighty percent
of the Washington nursing homes that responded to a survey by the state's quality
improvement organization said they were interested in the on-site assistance.
In the nursing
home effort, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will spend
at least $30 million nationally on contracts with quality improvement organizations,
or QIOs. It's not yet known how much of that will come to Washington and Idaho.
The effort dovetails
with the April launch of an
Internet-based nursing home rating system in six pilot states, including Washington.
The Internet ratings
will go national in October.
The ratings are
posted on the Web at www.medicare.gov. They are generated from patient information
that nursing homes are required to report to the government.
The data, not publicly
reported before April, include ratings for patient bed sores, dangerous weight
loss and infection.
To promote the
Internet ratings in the pilot states, the government published nursing home ratings
in $700,000 worth of newspaper ads.
But the ads were
met with a resounding silence, some in the industry said.
''The ads resulted
in no real public reaction,'' said Kary Hyre, who heads the private,nonprofit
Washington State Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program. ''We were kind of scared in
my office, (but) we've had just a couple of handfuls of calls.''
Some said the ratings
were misleading, unhelpful to consumers and possibly invalid.
''Most of us would
rather see the money in quality systems than see it go to ads in thenewspaper,''
said Suzanne Weiss, vice president of the American Association of Homes and Services
for the Aging in Washington, D.C.
Help with improving
quality of care, however, is greeted by nursing homes with more enthusiasm.
''This is what
they are hungry for,'' said Sandra Fitzler, a senior policy director for the American
Health Care Association, also in Washington, D.C.
QIOs have helped
nursing homes improve flu vaccine rates, reduce pressure sores and prevent falls,
according to the American Health Quality Association in Washington, D.C.
In the Washington
state pain management effort, nursing homes will learn about better ways to tell
if patients are in pain, appropriate medications and ways to reduce pain without
drugs, such as physical therapy. There will be on-site visits, workshops, teleconferences
and weekly follow-ups.
The process promotes
teamwork among nursing home staffs, Hyre said.
''You finally start
to listen to the nurse's aide,'' he said.
''Typically, nursing
homes have a pretty top-down management style. The doctor tells the nurse, who
tells the aide, who does it. This is much more a team sport.''
Dr. Bruce Dentler
of Spokane is one of several experts offering advice on pain management to the
West Side nursing homes in the quality improvement program.
The nine homes
are in Snohomish, King and Pierce counties.
If enough money
is allocated in the fall, the program will expand to 27 to 30 nursing homes, said
Evan Stults, spokesman for Qualis Health, the QIO for Washington state.
Eastern Washington
nursing homes that volunteer may receive the technical support at that time, Stults
said.
Meanwhile, one
nursing home administrator said he wasn't missing the attention.
''I don't feel
any neglect,'' said Glen Dunlap, administrator of Sullivan Park Care Center in
the Spokane Valley. ''We do our own in-house quality assurance. I know what's
going on in my building already.''
Carla K. Johnson
can be reached at (509) 459-5148, or by e-mail at carlaj@spokesman.com.
Sun Sentinel, Aug. 2, 2002
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