The new ratings for nursing homes have been released, and many of them scored lower than expected in terms of quality care.
As reported by USA Today recently, the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services led by Patrick Conway, its chief medical officer and administrator, has just published the newest ratings of thousands of nursing homes and facilities all around the country where more than a million seniors reside.
As standards for these facilities became stricter, around 61% of the nursing homes evaluated obtained lower scores in quality of care, although such score didn't affect much of their overall ratings. About 28%, meanwhile, lost a star. Less than 5% lost 2 stars.
The new ratings are available in the government-operated website called Nursing Home Compare. Every year, many families who wish their older adults to be taken care of by professionals go to this website to determine the best nursing homes in the area. Scores, especially favorable ones, also usually end up in the facility's marketing ads.
Explained Conway, the slight drop in ratings should not be an indication that the quality of care has turned for the worse. Rather, the standards to achieve a higher score have been changed as a way of seeking continuous improvements in this area. He mentioned that the quality care has remained the same over the last the 7 years even for those who have reached 5 stars.
Under the new guidelines, less than 350 homes have received a higher rating. For all other evaluated categories such as staffing, the scores remained almost the same.
One of the biggest challenges of nursing homes is the use of anti-psychotic drugs, which should be provided with extreme caution to older adults because of their harmful effects. This is especially true for those who have been diagnosed with dementia. More than 18% of the facilities scored the lowest in this standard.
