COLUMBUS (AP) — A newspaper reports that during the past fiscal year, Ohio’s nursing homes were cited nearly twice as often as the previous year for putting patients at serious risk of harm.
The Columbus Dispatch reported today that the jump in “immediate jeopardy” citations in the 2011-12 fiscal year coincides with cuts in Medicaid payments. But officials say it’s too soon to say whether the smaller government payments are affecting the quality of nursing-home care.
Government officials issued 41 “immediate jeopardy” citations in the 12 months ending June 30, the first year that nursing homes received reduced payments. That was up from 22 citations in the previous 12 months, and the most since 51 such citations were issued in the 2007-08 fiscal year.
Comments
A major component of the increase in citations has to be the cutting of staff at these homes, due to insurance and funding cuts. I personally know of a local home in Poland who has lost its 5 star rating, mainly because they have inadequate staff, and a lot of their staff lack real experience. When you work short constantly the quality of care suffers, regardless of how careful you are. You can only be so many places at once, you can only do so many things at once. You can only give so much hands on care when you are taking care of twice as many patients are you should be. These owners, and administrators, and DONs, really need to start focusing on the QUALITY of the staff they employ, for if you have to cut down the number of workers, you at least need to have experienced good workers. Nothing worse than a bunch of newbies working short together. Trust me, it gets old.