Nursing home ratings help shoppers, but are just the beginning
A new online federal rating system is supposed to help families choose a nursing home.
But following the death of a resident at a DuPage County nursing home, advocates for the elderly say families must do most of the leg work on their own, including checking up on their loved ones even after choosing a facility to care for them.
Sarah Wentworth, 89, froze to death this month just outside The Arbor in Itasca. She had dementia and wore an electronic device to sound an alarm if she wandered out. Police and the Illinois Department of Public Health are investigating the death.
The woman's family said they shopped carefully for a nursing home, chose The Arbor in part because of its solid inspection rating, and visited their mother frequently. But they said they were not aware the home's rating had dropped to one star on the new federal site.
"The consumer has to dig a lot deeper," said David Irwin, a spokesman for the American Association of Retired Persons. "They need to witness firsthand what the care is all about."
Families should: Visit at least three nursing homes with the prospective resident; talk to workers, other residents and families; visit the cafeteria and taste the food; and ask for the state inspection report, as required by law, among other things.
The government site, Nursing Home Compare, at medicare.org, rates 16,000 nursing homes, including more than 700 in Illinois, that have been approved for Medicare and Medicaid patients.
The new five-star rating system by the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, compares homes based on health inspections, staffing, and other quality measures, and then combines these into an overall rating.
Among the criteria:
Health inspections: Based on annual on-site state inspections to check medication management, protection from abuse and poor care, storage and preparation of food, fire safety, general environment, and staff-resident interaction.
Staffing: An unverified two-week staffing report provided by the nursing home is used to calculate average staffing hours per resident per day.
Quality: Nursing homes self-report each resident's health, physical and mental function, and general well-being, including such barometers as bed sores, eating and dressing.
A nursing home checklist, at medicare.gov, can be used to check whether a home is Medicare certified, has the level of care needed, and if there is a doctor on staff who is there daily and can be reached at all times, among other things.
Medicare cautions that any of this information could have changed since the last inspection.
Keep in mind, a federal review last year found that state inspectors missed the most serious violations that could jeopardize the health of a resident 15 percent of the time. Statewide, Illinois nursing homes ranked 39th nationally, with only 10 percent scoring five stars.
Nursing home inspection reports can also be found online at private sites, like carepathways.com or aplaceformom.com. The National Citizens' Coalition for Nursing Care Reform also provides information about choosing a nursing home at nccnhr.org. And the state health department offers advice and a checklist for checking out nursing homes at idph.state.il.us.