KANSAS CITY, Mo. – It can be a painful decision for anyone. Which nursing home is the best fit for an aging loved one?
The federal government’s new “Nursing Home Compare” system is supposed to help families choose.
The system rates all nursing homes receiving Medicare and Medicaid payments.
The rating system goes from 5, which means much above average, to 1, which indicates a much below average rating.
Everything from fire safety to food preparation goes into the rating.
A statistical analysis of the first-ever ratings of nearly 16,000 nursing homes nationwide reveals an uneven level of quality across the nation and shows how complicated it is to find a good nursing home.
Which Homes Rate Better, Which Rate Worse
The Scripps Howard News Service analysis of the
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' Nursing Home Compare system shows:
-- Institutions run by for-profit corporations, which account for about two-thirds of all nursing facilities, generally get lower scores than those run by nonprofits.
-- Homes with more nursing staff per patient, which also tend to be run by nonprofits, generally do better in the ratings.
-- Homes with more than 100 beds tend to get lower scores in all categories, including health of residents and levels of nursing care.
-- Ratings are lowest in Southern states, particularly for nursing care and registered-nurse staffing, and highest for homes located in the Northeast.
-- Slightly more than 20 percent of nursing homes nationwide have been regularly given the lowest ratings, and 12 percent to 13 percent have received the top rating.
The difficult news for families trying to find a good nursing home for a loved one is that behind the ratings are many complicated issues that make it difficult to assess which institutions offer the best care.
