Families for Better Care, a non-profit organization dedicated to advocating for quality elder care, released a state-by-state review of nursing home care. According to the group’s website, they “ranked and graded states on eight different federal quality measures ranging from the percentage of facilities with severe deficiencies to the number of hours frontline caregivers averaged per resident.”
Unfortunately, New York ranked number 45 out of the 50 states, and received a grade of an “F.” The executive director of Families for Better Care, Brian Lee stated that “New York represents what’s terribly wrong with nursing home care and oversights in America.” The study found that overall, “States whose nursing homes staffed at higher levels ranked far better than those with fewer staffing hours.” The results of New York’s scores support this finding by receiving an “F” in the following categories: “Direct Care Staffing Above Average”, “Verified Ombudsman Complaints”, “RN Hours”, and “RN Staffing Above Average.” NY also received a “D” in the “Direct Care Staffing Hours” category. The organization stated that New York’s nursing home residents barely received 40 minutes of professional nursing care per day.
Eleven other states also received failing grades. Families for Better Care highly attributes the poor levels of nursing home care to “an abundant lack of staffing.” They found that 96% of states offered their nursing home residents less than three hours of direct care daily. Therefore, they advise that more professional nursing staff are needed. To back this up they provide the daunting statistic that, “only seven states provided more than one hour of professional nursing care per resident per day.” However perhaps the worst statistic they outline is that one in every five nursing homes was guilty of abusing, neglecting or mistreating their residents in nearly half of the states. Hopefully these results will be a wakeup call to Nursing Facilities around the country to improve their standards of care and increase their levels of staff.
To review New York State’s rating results please click on the following link: http://nursinghomereportcards.com/state/ny/
If your loved one is currently residing in a Nursing Home, it is important for you to make sure that they are receiving quality care. Our Advocate’s Checklist can assist you in doing so: http://newyorkelderlawblog.com/2010/07/05/when-a-loved-one-needs-a-nursing-facility-part-3/
If you are currently considering nursing home placement for you or your loved one, the following website provides Medicare’s ratings for individual nursing homes throughout the country: http://www.medicare.gov/nursinghomecompare/search.html
If you suspect that a love one is being mistreated in the facility they reside, report this immediately. Our ElderCare Resource Center, Inc. section for New York State Elder Abuse Resources may be of assistance to you: http://www.eldercareresourcecenter.info/elder-abuse-resources-new-york.php
