Nursing homes are rated by both the state and by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services - CMS for short. CMS uses a five star system to rate nursing homes, basing its results on Inspections done by the states, the nursing home's staffing and designated quality measures.
There's a web site - MemberoftheFamily.net - that has compiled the CMS ratings into easy to look at tables. The site was started about ten years ago by a doctor who was appalled by the attitude of a nursing home toward one of his patients - an attitude that ignored his orders for treatment because they might cause problems for the home. It now keeps records for about 16,000 homes nationally, based on the CMS ratings. While it doesn't cover every nursing home, it's a useful tool.
The tables list numbers of violations reported with four summary ratings ranging from actual harm or immediate jeopardy, to potential for more than minimal harm, to potential for minimal harm, to no violations reported. Then it gives and overall rating based on the CMS stars, ranging from much above average to much below average.
We took a look at the statistics for Illinois nursing homes and we were shocked.
Of 784 homes listed, more than 80 percent - four of five - ranked either below average (221) or much below average (434!!!!)! Of the rest, 82 were average, 38 were above average and only nine were ranked much above average.
Now you can be shocked, too.
Michael Kosner, President
The Kosner Firm Chtd.
