Surprise, surprise-Arkansas received an absolutely miserable grade in a recent national survey of nursing-home quality of care. But how can that be?
Valued readers who follow this space see the edge of my tongue pushing into the left cheek. Truth is, this latest slap in the face of decent Arkansans is far beyond shameful.
Florida-based Families for Better Care surveyed nursing-home care in every state to see if residents have been receiving the care they deserve in eight specific quality areas. These folks examined the percentage of homes with deficiencies; percentage with severe deficiencies; the amount of above-average direct-care staffing; how many hours that staff spent on the job; the percentage of above-average health inspections; the hours that registered nurses spent at a home; the percentage of those hours considered above average; and verified ombudsman complaints.
Care to guess how Arkansas homes fared in each category? Any A’s? Yes, there were two. How about B’s? Nope. Well, surely there were some C’s? Forget about it.
In three of the eight categories of care, including deficiencies found and RN staffing and hours, Arkansas earned F’s. There were three D’s: one for percentage of facilities with severe deficiencies (25.9 percent), above-average direct-care staffing (54 percent) and above-average health inspections (33 percent). The A’s were awarded for direct-care staffing hours (2.8) and verified ombudsman complaints (49 percent).
The overall final grade of D left Arkansas languishing in 39th place nationally, just outside the dubious “Bottom Ten,” which included four of our neighboring states.
We can see just how bad things are when this study shows that a quarter of our state’s 232 nursing homes were cited with a severe deficiency. In fact, homes across the entire Southwest region of the U.S. received terrible grades for the quality of care provided to their residents.
From what I continue to hear and read about the shocking level of neglect and callous indifference displayed in these homes, I’m beginning to wonder if stray animals in our shelters don’t receive better overall treatment. And they don’t even get Medicaid dollars.
I’m thinking the good folks of Arkansas have reached the end of their rope in settling for such bottom-dwelling lack of effective care in the nursing homes. The time has long passed for state and federal regulators to act forcefully on behalf of the citizens who too often become ill and die in these homes due to inadequate care. Homes that are chronically cited for neglect and serious life threatening violations should be shut down, period.
When raking in profits supersedes quality of staffing and care, a nursing home doesn’t need to be operating as a supposed “care giving” facility. The time is long past to send that message to nursing-home owners who do not measure up.
No report of this nature would be complete without a response from the relentless firebrand known as Martha Deaver. She is the nationally recognized president of Arkansas Advocates for Nursing Home Residents.
Deaver said one reason our state does so poorly in quality of care is because we don’t employ enough registered nurses in these Medicare- and Medicaid-funded homes.
She also noted that her 2012 request for public documents showed more than 2,300 citations for actual harm or the potential for death involving relatively defenseless residents. That’s ridiculous!
The Families for Better Care report stated that two-thirds of the health inspections performed at Arkansas nursing homes found “much below average” to average living conditions.
“We were rated very poorly for not having enough registered nurses care for our sickest and most frail residents who require 24-hour nursing care,” Deaver told a news reporter. “In the report, it does document that [Arkansas] has a high rate of actual harm violations and other serious abuses.” The sad facts of this sustained disgrace are well-documented. The obvious question becomes: How much longer are we as a state willing to accept it? I say it’s time to contact the governor’s office and your legislators to insist that conditions be dramatically improved for nursing-home residents who can’t speak for themselves.
This industry has plenty of lobbyists and lawyers to argue that the status quo in Arkansas homes is delightful. And with all that federal tax money being pumped into these places, it likely is indeed delightful for those who own them.
It’s not that much to ask to speak for those who can’t. It can’t help but make a positive difference if enough of us do. Meanwhile, be sure to scrutinize the latest inspection reports on a nursing home before you check anyone you care about into it.
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Mike Masterson’s column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at [email protected]. Read his blog at mikemastersonsmessenger.com.
Editorial, Pages 83 on 09/08/2013