The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services offers a website, Nursing Home Compare, that enables consumers to view inspection reports on safety violations for abuse and neglect in certified nursing homes.
Abuse and Neglect Violations
Nursing Home Compare allows people to search by location and/or nursing home name for facilities with Five-Star Ratings on quality care. Facilities with less than 5-Star Ratings or citations for abuse and/or neglect are marked with specific red icons that alert consumers to safety violations.
Nursing Home Compare provides consumers with valuable information on the quality of care in Medicare and Medicaid funded facilities across the country. It allows consumers to select multiple nursing homes and compare their reports and ratings on health inspections, staffing levels, and resident care which are the basis for quality ratings that range from 1 to 5 stars. Ratings and reports are updated monthly, so consumers have the latest information available. By comparing information, families can choose a nursing home with better care and fewer injuries caused by abuse and neglect cases seen by nursing home abuse lawyers each year.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) implemented Nursing Home Compare in 1998, but new information is added continually. Recently, five new quality care measures were added to the Nursing Home Compare website to clarify how quality care ratings are calculated. The Five-Star Quality Rating is based on Medicare and Medicaid claims for the percentage of:
- short-term residents discharged successfully back into the community
- short-term residents admitted to outpatient hospital emergency departments
- short-term residents re-admitted to hospitals after nursing home admission
- short-term residents with improvements in normal function
- long-term residents with worsened abilities to move freely or function independently
A sixth quality care measure is based on the use of anti-anxiety or hypnotic medications given to nursing home residents. It is not presently included in the Five-Star Quality Rating calculations because of difficulty establishing benchmarks for acceptable use of these medications.
Nursing Home Compare information only applies to Medicare and Medicaid-certified facilities. These facilities are regulated at the federal level by the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In Illinois, state nursing homes are regulated by the Illinois Department of Public Health.
