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Star-Rating System Helps Consumers Choose Nursing Home

By Jane Akre

p align="center"img title="A new rating system goes into effect for nursing homes today." alt="A new rating system goes into effect for nursing homes today." src="http://www.injuryboard.com/uploadedImages/InjuryBoardcom_Content/Blogs/News_Blog/News/Nursing home resident i stock mark papas 500.jpg" border="0" //p p/p table width="200" align="right" tbody tr tdp align="center"stronguLEARN MORE/u/strong/p ul lia href="http://www.medicare.gov/NHCompare/Include/DataSection/Questions/SearchCriteriaNEW.asp?version=defaultamp;browser=IE%7C7%7CWinXPamp;language=Englishamp;defaultstatus=0amp;pagelist=Homeamp;CookiesEnabledStatus=True"font color="#800080"Medicare's Nursing Home Compare/font/a Web site/li liSenate Bill 2838- a href="http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s110-2838"font color="#800080"Fairness in Nursing Home Arbitration Act/font/a/li lia href="http://www.cms.hhs.gov/"font color="#800080"Centers for Medicare amp; Medicaid Services/font/a/li lia href="http://www.nasop.org/"font color="#800080"Find an Ombudsman/font/a at NASOP/li liInjuryboard Help Center - a href="/help-center/nursing-home-and-elder-abuse/"font color="#800080"Nursing Home Abuse/font/a/li liInjuryboard News- a href="/national-news/teen-girls-charged-with-abusing-nursing-home-residents.aspx?googleid=252646"font color="#800080"on Elderly Abuse/font/a/li /ul p /p p align="center"IMAGE SOURCE: ©iStockphoto/ nursing home resident/ author: a href="http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup/people/5431594-elderly-woman-in-wheelchair.php?id=5431594"font color="#800080"MarkPapas/font/a/p p /p /td /tr /tbody /table pWe use the five-star rating system when choosing a hotel - why not a nursing home? /p pThat's the theory behind a new rating system proposed by the a href="http://www.cms.hhs.gov/"font color="#800080"Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services./font/a /p pThe information is already available on the Medicare Nursing Home Compare a href="http://www.medicare.gov/NHCompare/Include/DataSection/Questions/SearchCriteriaNEW.asp?version=defaultamp;browser=IE%7C7%7CWinXPamp;language=Englishamp;defaultstatus=0amp;pagelist=Homeamp;CookiesEnabledStatus=True"font color="#800080"Web site/font/a, but this system makes it easier for consumers to use./p pUnder the rating system, which is to go into effect today, the a title="nation's 16,000 nursing homes" href="http://http//www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hwX9-j6Yxge44aW5Q0X4viycjNYwD9553GB85"nation's 16,000 nursing homes/a would receive stars based on state inspections, staffing levels, quality assessment such as the number of residents with pressure sores and even the cracks in the walls./p p"From a consumer viewpoint, it's not stringent enough," says Alice Hedt, executive director of the a href="http://www.nccnhr.org/"font color="#800080"National Citizens' Coalition for Nursing Home Reform./font/a/p pHedt says consumers need to consider not just the star ratings, but also their own sense of a place. Ask the question- what is the customer satisfaction among those already there?/p pAdversely, a home may rate better than the care they actually give./p pIn Indiana, eight nonprofit nursing homes got one-star for staffing even though they have some of the highest staffing ratios in the state, a title="reports AP" href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hwX9-j6Yxge44aW5Q0X4viycjNYwD9553GB85"reports AP/a. The group's owner believes the one-star rating is the result of a glitch./p pAs far as staffing data, it is self-reported and widely recognized as unreliable./p pOther critics say the system is not ready to launch because it is poorly planned and prematurely implemented./p pThe new Five-Star Rating System launched at a href="http://www.medicare.gov/"www.medicare.gov/a./p pThe a href="http://www.nasop.org/"font color="#800080"National Association of State Long-Term Care Ombudsman Programs (NASOP/font/a), a nonprofit comprised of ombudsmen representing their state programs, commends the new system./p p"We are very supportive of giving consumers information to select a nursing home and to monitor the home's performance," said Beverley Laubert, the a href="http://www.nccnhr.org/uploads/File/Ombudsman_statement_on_Five-Star_Release.pdf"font color="#800080"association president in a statement/font/a. "And we urge consumers and their families to seek an understanding of how the ratings are derived and to use the ratings in conjunction with other resources."/p pState and local long-term care ombudsmen advocate quality of life and care as well as respect for individual rights. They can provide consumers with information about homes in their area and explain regulatory survey results.  Consumers looking for the State Ombudsman phone number at a href="http://www.medicare.gov/"www.medicare.gov/a or at a href="http://www.nasop.org/"font color="#800080"www.nasop.org/font/a/p pbConsumers Considering a Nursing Home/b /p pWhat to look for:/p ul liVisit the home and review staffing data to make sure that every shift, every day is covered/li liObserve - do residents look clean and well groomed? Are call lights answered in a timely Manner?  Do staff address one another and residents with respect?/li /ul pbBinding Arbitration/b/p pConsumers may also want to consider the small print on a nursing home or care facility contract.   Binding arbitration clauses have become standard./p pThe NCCNHR also supports the Fairness in Nursing Home Arbitration Act (a href="http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s110-2838"font color="#800080"S. 2838/font/a and H.R. 6126), that invalidates mandatory arbitration clauses in nursing home and long-term care facility contracts. Under the bill, residents would no longer be required to give up their right to sue a facility if it abuses or neglects residents./p pIf signing away your rights to seek a remedy in the courts is contained in a proposed contract, consumers should know they are relinquishing their rights. #/pa href="http://www.injuryboard.com/national-news/star-rating-system-helps-consumers-choose-nursing-home.aspx?googleid=253566"Originally posted/a at a href="http://www.InjuryBoard.com"InjuryBoard/a by a href="http://www.injuryboard.com/member-profiles/Jane-Akre"Jane Akre/adiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.injuryboard.com/~f/IBnationalnews?a=dDTuO"img src="http://feeds.injuryboard.com/~f/IBnationalnews?i=dDTuO" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.injuryboard.com/~f/IBnationalnews?a=NFFiO"img src="http://feeds.injuryboard.com/~f/IBnationalnews?i=NFFiO" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.injuryboard.com/~f/IBnationalnews?a=mD0UO"img src="http://feeds.injuryboard.com/~f/IBnationalnews?i=mD0UO" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.injuryboard.com/~r/IBnationalnews/~4/488810428" height="1" width="1"/

Full post as published by InjuryBoard on December 18, 2008 (boomark / email).