Analysis of the Nursing Home Compare Five-Star Rating System has uncovered the ten worst states for nurse staffing.
The rating system gives nursing homes from 1 to 5 stars, overall and on 10 key quality measures such as performance in the latest three quarterly reports; percentage of residents with urinary tract infections; performance in the latest three annual health inspections; and adequacy of both overall staffing and staffing by registered nurses.
To get a five-star rating on staffing, homes had to provide at least four hours a day per patient of care by registered nurses and other nursing staff.
The following 10 states have the highest percentages of nursing homes with the worst rating of 1 star for adequate staffing by registered nurses.
State #of nursing homes % of homes with 1 star
Louisiana 269 75.1
Georgia 342 66.1
Arkansas 225 54.7
Texas 1,042 47.2
Oklahoma 295 46.1
Tennessee 293 41.6
Missouri 489 41.1
Virginia 263 37.6
Indiana 482 32.6
Alabama 218 31.7
Although some nursing home execs say the ratings are not a true representation of their facility or may be skewed, the fact remains that the homes provide much of the information. “CMS is using their data,” says Illinois ombudsman Sally Patrone. If they’re poorly rated, they need to improve.”
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