THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, August 31, 1996 TAG: 9608310374
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B01 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DEBRA GORDON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: 85 lines
State health department inspectors gave Manning Convalescent Home a nearly clean bill of health during the nursing home's most recent inspection, which means the home's Medicaid residents won't have to be transferred.
The state's report, available Friday, noted only two minor problems during the inspection conducted on Aug. 22 and 23.
The results mean the region's largest nursing home can admit new Medicaid and Medicare residents, something it has been restricted from doing since June, said Timothy Hock, an official with the U.S. Health Care Financing Administration division that oversees nursing homes. The home has room for 258 residents.
The successful inspection also means the federal government won't cancel Manning's Medicare/Medicaid contracts, which cover most of the home's 173 residents. The government had threatened to cancel those contracts in an Aug. 13 letter.
That letter, and the other penalties imposed on Manning, came after April, May and July inspections turned up numerous problems at the home that could affect residents' health and safety.
Manning's problems included failure to help a resident get consent for surgery, which delayed the operation. The delay placed the resident ``in a life-threatening position,'' inspectors wrote in their April report.
The home also incurred $500-a-day fines from Aug. 13 to Aug. 23, when the latest inspection was completed, Hock said. The home has until Oct. 13 to either pay the $5,000 total fine or file an appeal with the federal government. If the nursing home pays without appealing, it gets a discount.
Manning administrator Robert T. Manning and his father, Thurman Manning, who owns the home, declined to comment on the most recent report.
The report lists two deficiencies, both related to record-keeping:
The home's staff used a restraint with a patient but didn't document whether staff members had considered less-restrictive devices. This failure had the potential to ``compromise residents' ability to maintain their current level of functioning,'' the report said.
The staff failed to document whether the home consistently monitored the nutritional status of all residents. At least one resident had not been weighed in four months.
State long-term care ombudsman Mark Miller called the results of Manning's most recent inspection ``wonderful.''
``Hopefully (Manning) can maintain the compliance and continue along,'' he said.
Miller and other officials had worried that there were not enough beds in other Hampton Roads nursing homes to handle patients who would have been transferred.
Miller said Manning's most recent inspection highlights how different nursing homes react to state inspections. He compared Manning to Forest Hill Convalescent Center in Richmond, which failed six inspections in eight months. This week, the state installed a temporary administrator in that facility.
``Most facilities, once problems are identified, are able to do what it takes to come back into compliance,'' Miller said.
Manning will need to stay in compliance on its next inspection or risk additional penalties, said Hock, the Health Care Financing Administration official.
He didn't know when that inspection might occur. ``It depends on the state's workload, or if a complaint comes in,'' he said. ``It's safe to guess no more than a year from when the full survey was completed.'' The full inspection was completed April 1.
If the home has serious problems on its next inspection, it may be designated as a ``poor performer,'' Hock said. That means the home doesn't get to correct problems before penalties are imposed, and may also face higher fines and more severe penalties, he said.
That designation is part of enforcement regulations enacted by the federal government in July 1995. They are designed to avoid ``yo-yo'' compliance, said Nancy Hofheimer, who directs the state health department division that monitors and licenses nursing homes.
In the past, she said, homes had an attitude of ``fix it while we're here, then forget about it when we're gone,'' which resulted in some nursing homes having the same problems year after year.
``These regulations are really meant to ensure that a facility is in substantial compliance and maintains substantial compliance,'' she said. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
The home must stay in compliance or risk fines beyond those levied
at midmonth.
Graphic
Manning convalescent Home Restrictions Lifted
For complete graphic, see microfilm by CNB