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Elder Care News
More Nursing Homes Added to List of Underperformers
by CMS
CMS expands information available
about nursing homes
Feb. 12, 2008 - More nursing homes across the
country were added today to the list of “underperforming nursing homes”
that is being made public by The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid
Services (CMS). The number on the list is now 131 active facilities.
On November 29, 2007, the agency began publishing
the names of Special Focus Facility (SFF) nursing homes that had failed
to improve significantly after being given the opportunity to do so.
Once a facility is selected as an SFF, state survey
agencies are responsible for conducting twice the number of standard
surveys and will apply progressive enforcement until the nursing home
either
(a) significantly improves and is no longer identified as an SFF,
(b) is granted additional time due to promising developments, or
(c) is terminated from Medicare and/or Medicaid.
“This is the latest in a series of steps we will be
taking to improve quality and oversight in nursing homes,” said Kerry
Weems, CMS acting administrator.
“We are issuing more information on special focus
facilities to better equip beneficiaries, their families, and caregivers
to make informed decisions and stimulate robust improvements in nursing
homes having not improved their quality of care.”
Between November and February, CMS worked with
states to assure that the SFF list (see link below) is current and
provides consumers with the information needed to make a distinction
between nursing homes that are improving and those that are not.
Today’s release includes a broader list of all
nursing homes identified in the SFF initiative. This updated and
expanded list identifies facilities by the category they fall within,
such as:
● New Additions: nursing homes added within
approximately the past six months;
● Not Improved: nursing homes that have failed
to improve significantly in at least one survey after being named as a
SFF nursing home;
● Improving: nursing homes that have
significantly improved on the most recent survey, including no findings
of harm to any resident and no systemic potential for harm;
● Recently Graduated: nursing homes that have
sustained significant improvement for about 12 months, indicating an
upward trend in quality improvement compared to the nursing home’s prior
history of care; and those
● No Longer in Medicare and Medicaid: nursing
homes that were either terminated by CMS from participation in Medicare
within the past few months, or voluntarily chose not to continue
participation.
The SFF initiative was created by CMS in 1998 in
response to the number of facilities that were consistently providing
poor quality of care. Those facilities were periodically instituting
enough improvement so that they would pass one survey, only to fail the
next (for many of the same problems as before).
Facilities with this compliance history rarely
addressed underlying systemic problems that were giving rise to repeated
cycles of serious deficiencies.
Serious deficiencies include such things as failing
to give residents their medications in the correct dose at the correct
time, taking steps to prevent abuse or neglect, inappropriate use of
restraints and failure to prevent or properly treat bed sores.
Nearly three million Americans, most of who are
enrolled in Medicare or Medicaid, depend on the nation’s 16,000 nursing
homes at some point during each year.
The number of SFFs in each state varies according
to the number of nursing homes in the state. These nursing homes, at the
time of their selection as an SFF, had survey results that were among
the poorest five or 10 percent in each state.
There are currently about 131 active facilities
identified as an SFF. This number varies over time as nursing homes are
graduating or leaving Medicare and Medicaid and new nursing homes are in
the process of being added to the SFF list.
The CMS data indicate that about 50 percent of the
nursing homes identified as SFFs significantly improve their quality of
care within 24-30 months, while about 16 percent are terminated from
Medicare and Medicaid.
“Today’s announcement is the latest step toward
continually improving the SFF initiative and the Nursing Home Compare
website, with more improvements to occur throughout the rest of the
year,” Weems said.
“This spring, for example, we will add links
between the individual nursing homes shown on the Compare Web site and
the full SFF list.
“In the summer of 2008, we will provide information
on methods by which SFFs may access additional technical assistance to
help move them into compliance with federal quality of care
requirements,” he said.
Downloads
Special Focus Facility Background Info and List - Updated 2/12/08 (PDF,
157 KB)
More on the SFF initiative -
Click Here.
For the survey history of all U.S. nursing homes,
see Nursing Home Compare –
Click Here
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