Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 24, 1990 TAG: 9005240261
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
A majority of the measurements of nursing home quality in the 93-volume guide, compiled from surprise inspections of nursing homes in 1988 and 1989, did not change or improve from the previous report.
But the survey found the number of homes not meeting federal standards for two areas - proper care for injections, tube feeding and other procedures, and providing meaningful resident activities - increased from the 1987-88 report. In each case, the rise was less than 4 points.
The report, the second in a planned annual series, measures the performance in 32 categories of more than 15,000 nursing homes that have Medicare or Medicaid patients.
"This is not the definitive guide to nursing home selection," cautioned Gail Wilensky, head of the Health Care Financing Administration, which handles the Medicare and Medicaid programs. "This is a snapshot at a point in time."
The guide provides basic information that consumers should use to ask questions of nursing home operators before selecting a home, she said.
Wilensky said the new report shows general improvement since the 1987-88 survey, but "we are doing much better on some areas than we are doing on others.
"In general it appears that there are fewer examples of nursing homes not meeting these criteria than occurred in 1987-88, so things are showing somewhat - not a great deal - of improvement and I regard that as a good sign." But many in the nursing home industry called the documents unreliable, incomplete and misleading.
Paul Willging of the American Health Care Association, which represents 10,000 nursing homes with 1 million residents, said the guide is "not reliable. In fact, the guide could be harmful to consumers who use it as a shortcut to selecting a nursing home."
Overall, the failure rate exceeded 15 percent in nine categories for the homes that provide skilled care.
The state-by-state reports include a profile of each nursing home with Medicare and Medicaid patients.
The reports document each nursing home's compliance with 32 "performance indicators" that include cleanliness, medical supervision, nursing care, availability of emergency services, food quality and attention to personal needs. This was based on an unannounced annual inspection.
Added to this year's reports is a listing of all other deficiencies found in the 1988-89 inspections.
The reports compare each nursing home to similar nursing homes in their state and in the nation. The homes are grouped by those that provide intermediate care and those that provide skilled-nursing care.
The most common deficiency for both groups was in sanitary food conditions.
Among the 10,000 skilled-nursing care homes, 36 percent were judged to have not met this standard, compared with 43 percent in the previous report.
Of the 5,000 nursing homes providing intermediate care, 39 percent did not meet sanitary food standards, down from 45 percent in the previous report.
The next most common deficiency among skilled-care facilities was in ensuring good personal hygiene of residents, a category which 26 percent failed. Previously, 30 percent did not meet this standard.
Among intermediate-care homes, the second most common deficiency was not administering drugs according to written orders of the attending physician. Nearly 23 percent failed, compared with 25 percent previously.
Nearly 25 percent of skilled-care facilities were not administering drugs properly, down from 29 percent in 1987-88.
Wilensky said that although she was glad to see improvement in many facilities, "I would be much happier as a public official if those numbers were a lot lower and we will continue to work to get them just as low as we can."
Keywords:
ADULT HOMES
by CNB