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Government
releases data on 17,000 nursing homes
Survey
to aid consumers in judging quality of care
Staff And Wire
Reports
November 13, 2002
A new federal survey
provides data on patient care at every U.S. nursing home, a widely hailed move
to make patients and their families smarter consumers.
Quality indicators
on 17,000 nursing homes can be found on the Internet at www.medicare.gov
or by calling 1-800-MEDICARE. Consumers can get information on such topics as
the prevalence of physical restraints at a facility or its percentage of residents
with bed sores. Information on deficiencies found during annual inspections and
complaint investigations is also being made available.
The program, which
began yesterday, is an expansion of a pilot program that began this year in Colorado,
Florida, Maryland, Ohio, Rhode Island and Washington state.
"This is a new
approach to bringing about better quality care in our nation's nursing homes,"
said Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson. "Not only will consumers
be better informed, but nursing homes themselves will be able to see more clearly
what they must do to make the quality grade."
Donna Lenhoff,
executive director of the National Citizens' Coalition for Nursing Home Reform,
called the federal program "extremely important."
"It means that
consumers will be able to find out more information, and they will be alerted
to some of the questions they need to ask about nursing homes," Lenhoff said.
But she and others
cautioned that the information should not be the sole resource when choosing a
nursing home. Visiting the facility, talking to residents and getting information
from the long-term care ombudsmen's office in each state are still recommended.
"Consumers should
take the time to investigate thoroughly," said James Parkel, president of AARP,
the nation's largest lobbying group for older people. "Nursing home residents
are the most vulnerable of all older Americans. We have a duty ... to promote
their quality of life."
Maryland health
officials have been ahead of the trend. The state launched its own nursing home
report card more than a year ago. As part of a related quality initiative, nursing
homes across the state have posted decreases in the rate of pressure sores and
the use of restraints.
The information
in both report cards - the Maryland and the federal one - is provided by Medicare.
It's based on data that nursing homes must collect from residents routinely as
part of their participation in the federal Medicare program. Besides providing
consumers useful information, government officials are hoping that the new availability
of information will prompt owners to improve their facilities.
Homes that want
to step up performance levels can get help from quality improvement organizations,
based in each state, under contract with Medicare. "They're basically a government
paid consultant," said Medicare administrator Tom Scully.
In Maryland, one
of these organizations, the Delmarva Foundation, has been working with about a
dozen nursing homes on strategies to prevent bed sores. One facility put pieces
of paper marked with the time and date underneath patients, to test whether staff
were moving and turning patients every two hours, as required. The home's management
discovered one unit where staff members were rarely moving the patients, information
that prompted improvements.
Next, Delmarva
will be working with a larger group of Maryland nursing homes on pain management.
In Colorado, about
50 of 225 facilities sought help from the quality improvement organizations, officials
there said.
Clear Creek Care
Center in Westminster, Colo., sent six nursing home employees once a month to
a half-day workshop with improvement experts. There, they were taught what they
could do to better identify and care for residents in pain. The result was that
the percentage of Clear Creek residents who reported experiencing pain has dropped
from 19 percent in April to 5 percent this month, officials said.
"We can really
say now in our facility that all staff is aware of our philosophy about pain,"
nursing home administrator Beth Irtz said.
Copyright ©
2002, The Baltimore Sun
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