Nursing Home Rating Tool Launched
June 1st, 2009
We’ve been following the widespread issue of nursing home abuse for some time. Last year, the former Bush administration finally published the names of 131 of the nation’s worst nursing homes. Now, says the Wall Street Journal, the federal government is increasing efforts to improve nursing home care by implementing an evaluative Web-based tool.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will initiate the pilot program this summer to track how cash incentives to nursing homes improve care, specifically in nurse staffing and preventable hospitalizations, said the Journal. The agency also flags those listed as the worst, which has increased to about 135, on the Web site. The most problematic facilities are labeled as “Special Focus Facilities,” noted the Journal.
In a harrowing example of the widespread problem of elder abuse and negligence, last year, the family of a deceased Norwich, Connecticut man filed what is believed to be the first wrongful death lawsuit against officials at Connecticut’s largest nursing home chain: Haven Healthcare. The suit claimed that misappropriation of Haven funds by Chief Executive Officer Raymond Termini contributed to “deplorable conditions.” The family also sought permission to sue the state departments of public health and social services, and Nancy Shaffer, the state’s long-term care ombudsman, for failing to investigate and act on complaints lodged by the family.
The deceased family member was a patient at Haven homes for over two years when he was rushed to a hospital after his wife found him in excruciating pain and his legs gangrenous and in early rigor mortis, allegedly due to an untreated and infected pressure sore on his hip and physical restraints that immobilized him. The man died two days later.
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