Yesterday the Bush Administration announced that it will create a nursing home rating system by the end of the year. The criteria for ratings has not yet been established, but will likely be a combination of state and federal inspection reports, staffing reports, and resident and family satisfaction surveys. The ratings would be placed on a government website.
“The fact a home has a lower rating will likely put them on the path to improvement,” said Kerry Weems, acting administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. “I don’t think we’re going to see many people who are very anxious to put a loved one in a one-star home.”
Those looking for information about California nursing homes already have a few options when looking at prospective homes. The California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform have a nursing home guide resource, and the California Healthcare Foundation has its own rating system. Both use the government surveys and staffing reports as a basis for the rankings, so the accuracy of the ratings is based primarily on the government’s information, which can be notoriously unreliable.
As we have said in previous posts, the best way to choose a nursing home is to look at the government surveys, and to visit the home on more than one occasion and speak with current residents and their families.
The law firm of Walton Law Firm LLP represents victims of nursing home malpractice. It accepts cases in all Southern California counties, including Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Diego, San Bernardino, Ventura, and Imperial.