Understaffed

New Study Shows Nursing Homes May Be Inflating Their Rating

Published on: January 18, 2018 | O'Connor Law

One of the most difficult decisions families have to face is deciding to put a loved one in a nursing home. They want to make sure they are placing their family member in a safe environment where they will receive the proper care they need.

Many of those families rely on a government rating system to determine which facilities are the best. The Five-Star Quality Rating System employed by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is a source of information to help consumers make an informed decision when choosing a nursing home. The Medicare Nursing Home Compare website features a quality rating system that gives each nursing home a rating of between 1 (much below average) and 5 stars (much above average). The nursing home is given a star rating in three areas, self-reported staffing, self-reported quality measures, and health inspections. The facility is also given an overall star rating.

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A new study of California nursing homes (the nation’s largest system of nursing homes) discovered that some nursing homes have inflated their self-reporting to improve their score in the rating system. The study was done by faculty at Florida Atlantic University and the University of Connecticut and published in the Production and Operations Management journal under the title “Winning at All Costs: Analysis of Inflation in Nursing Homes’ Rating System”. The rating system was implemented in 2008 and this study used data from 2009 to 2013.

Pennsylvania Fining Nursing Homes at Higher Rate

Published on: August 4, 2017 | O'Connor Law

The Pennsylvania Department of Health has levied $816,000 in fines against nursing home providers already in the first half of 2017. That is more than double the $407,450 in fines handed out in 2016. The department also handed out fines of $170,050 in 2015 and $62,000 in 2014.

In 2014, there were 7 cases where the department found a citation that had caused a resident actual harm. So far in 2017, there have been 88 cases. This vast increase in fines is due mostly to regulators using a more rigorous penalty system. The rigorousness is coming after receiving criticism for being too lenient on insufficient care. “When the auditor general looked at our oversight of nursing homes, one of the key recommendations was to be more aggressive in our oversight, and we are,” the department said earlier this year in a statement. In October 2016, Secretary of Health Karen Murphy announced that the department would be using more discretion in determining how much it would fine facilities. The department will be taking into account the level of harm, how long it takes for a problem to be fixed, the facility’s track record of compliance, and other factors.

April Hutcheson, a department spokeswoman, said the department has resumed using federally mandated anonymous reporting, which had been discontinued previously. State surveyors also received federal training last year for how to identify the scope and severity of the situation “and, as a result, we have seen an increase in citations of deficiencies at the actual harm and immediate jeopardy level,” said Lorraine Ryan, a CMS spokeswoman.

The 18 Most Understaffed Nursing Homes in Pennsylvania

Published on: March 27, 2017 | O'Connor Law

When moving a family member into a nursing home you are doing so with the hope that they will be given the utmost care and protection. Unfortunately, understaffing in nursing homes leads to neglect of its elderly residents. When there is a shortage of staff members compared to the amount of residents, the staff becomes overworked and stressed and it is the residents that suffer. This leads to increases in malnutrition, unhealthy weight loss, dehydration, infections and bedsores among the nursing home residents.

PennLive analyzed Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement data to compile a list of the 18 most understaffed nursing homes in Pennsylvania based on hours spent caring for each resident. PennLive also compiled how much of that care came from registered nurses (RN), licensed practical nurses (LPN), and certified nurse assistants (CNA). It is recommended that at least 4.1 staff hours a day be spent on each resident’s care. The average hours per day spent on each resident is 2.84. The most understaffed home on the list was Manor Care in Pottsville (2.77 hours of care per day). Manor Care, which is one of the biggest nursing home chains in the United States, occupied 10 of the 18 spots on this list.

The full list can be seen here.