Need Help Selecting A Nurisng Home? Talk To The Staff
I spend a lot of time talking with families regarding the selection of an initial nursing home for a family member or perhaps transferring the person from one nursing home to another. Soon into our discussion, I see mild mannered people become downright angry when discussing the problems they encounter when selecting a facility. Most of the time, the selection of a skilled nursing facility is done during a stressful period such as the onset of a sudden illness or when change in medical condition necessitates such a move. Frustration levels seem to get compounded when families visit facilities only...
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Less Patients, Happier Staff, Healthier Patients. Research Shows Less May Acutally Be More When It Comes To Patient Loads For Nurses
Without proper staffing, even the most modern nursing homes are nothing more than buildings with beds. Knowledgeable and plentiful staff has always appeared to improve patient morale, but a new study determines that added staff may actually save lives. The Journal of Health Services Research compared the outcomes from 1.1 million people who had general surgical procedures performed at more than 800 hospitals in California, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Of the three states, patients in California fared the best. It's not just the warm weather in California that improved the heath of surgical patients. Turns out, the patients in California...
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Are Nursing Homes Required To Have Certain Numbers Of Staff?
"Are nursing homes required to have certain numbers of staff" -Edward, Highland Park, IL Illinois does not require a specific staff to patient ratio for Illinois nursing home facilities. The responsibility lies on each facility to determine the staffing needs to meet the needs of its residents. (Section 300.1230 – Staffing) The Administrative Code requires that a sufficient number of staff remain on duty for all hours of the day to provide services that meet the total needs of the residents. (Administrative Code Part 300 – Skilled Nursing and Intermediate Care Facilities Code) Staffing is based on the needs of...
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Even After Repeated Tragedies, Alden Wentworth Nursing Home Refuses To Hire Additional Staff To Assist Patients
On May 4, 2009, Bennie Saxon, a veteran suffering from dementia who was a resident at the Alden Wentworth Rehabilitation and Health Care Center fell four stories to his death. The Alden facility is a large 300 bed, predominately black nursing home facility located in Chicago’s South Side. According to the government’s Medicare website, the facility received only two out of five stars, which is a below average rating, receiving only one out of five stars for health inspections and one out of five stars for nursing home staffing. In the past year, the nursing home had 23 health deficiencies,...
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Nursing Home Spotlight: St. Martha Manor
St. Martha Manor is a smaller 57 bed nursing home located in the north side of Chicago. According to the government’s Medicare website, the facility received only one out of five stars, which is a much below average rating. In the past year, the nursing home had seven health deficiencies, which is one less than the average number of health deficiencies in Illinois and in the United States. The seven health deficiencies in the past year are an improvement from the eleven health deficiencies reported the previous year. Federal law requires nursing homes to report and investigate any acts...
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Blacks Receive Inferior Care At Most Nursing Homes
A very informative, and frankly disheartening, investigative article on race in Chicago Nursing Homes was recently published in The Chicago Reporter. The article's author, Jeff Kelly Lowenstein, concluded that black nursing home residents received inferior care compared to their counterparts in predominately white facilities-- even when the facilities were owned by the same person. Lowenstein analyzed the care rendered to residents at Alden Nursing Home, a well known chain of Chicago facilities owned by Floyd Schlossberg. Lowenstein obviously did his homework, he analyzed data from: the Illinois Department of Public Health's website, staffing levels on the Centers for Medicare and...
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Nursing Homes Notified Of Their 'Five Star' Ratings Today
Letters notifying nursing home operators of their facilities rating, according to a new CMS 'five star' system, were mailed today. Beginning on December 18th, the public will be able to access individual nursing home's ratings on the CMS website 'Nursing Home Compare.' In addition to learning about the nursing home's actual rating on a five star scale, the website will allow users to access each facilities staffing level, compared to other facilities. The nursing home rating will be updated on a monthly basis as an incentive for facilities to consistently improve their care. I am all for this new system....
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