Medicare Grades of Kentucky Nursing Homes Reveal Troubling Trends
Nursing home negligence is a problem in Kentucky and across the country. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) are continually looking at ways to better monitor and improve patient care and outcomes. Medicare-certified nursing homes are rated on a five-star system based on three measures: health inspections, staffing, and quality measures. This gives a “snapshot” of the overall quality of the home, according to Medicare.
The Lexington Herald Leader recently conducted a review of the latest ratings, and the results are troubling. The nursing home ratings can be sorted and viewed on Medicare’s website. A total of 279 Kentucky nursing homes are rated by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Of this total, a concerning 72 are rated just one out of five stars. Of these 72 nursing homes, seven have been cited for abuse. According to the Herald Leader, these facilities include:
- Chautauqua Health and Rehabilitation, 1205 Leitchfield Road, Owensboro, KY 42303
- Elliott Nursing and Rehabilitation, Route 32 East Howard Creek Road, Sandy Hook, KY 41171
- Hazard Health and Rehabilitation Center, 390 Park Ave., Hazard, KY 41702
- Landmark of Iroquois Park Rehab and Nursing Center, 900 Gagel Ave., Louisville, KY 40216
- Landmark of Louisville Rehabilitation and Nursing, 1155 Eastern Parkway, Louisville, KY 40217
- Regency Center, 1550 Raydale Drive, Louisville, KY 40219
- Ridgeway Nursing and Rehabilitation Facility, 406 Wyoming Road, Owingsville, KY 4036
On the other end of the spectrum, only 43 of the facilities received a five-star rating. Of these five-star facilities, 9 are located in the Louisville area (2 facilities located in nearby Indiana received five-star ratings), 5 are near Lexington, 1 is near Bowling Green, and 4 are near Owensboro.
These numbers reflect a troubling trend in the nursing home industry. Bloomberg Law recently reported on concerns relating to the prescription and use of antipsychotic medications in U.S. nursing homes. According to an Office of the Inspector General Report, 80% of Medicare long term nursing home care residents received some type of psychotropic drug from 2011 to 2019.
Recently, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) have taken initiative to “reduce the inappropriate use of antipsychotic medications and to bring greater transparency about nursing home citations to families.” Among these actions, CMS will conduct targeted, off-site audits to determine whether nursing homes are accurately assessing and coding individuals with schizophrenia diagnoses and will begin publicly displaying survey citations that have been issued but are disputed by facilities. The Biden Administration has released a plan with these and other actions aimed towards improving the quality of care in U.S. nursing homes.
If you or a loved one has experienced nursing home abuse or neglect, contact the Poppe Law Firm. Not all nursing homes are the same, neither are all nursing home negligence lawyers.