Nursing home decisions may be made easier thanks to a little help from the federal government. The government overhauled one of its web services to help families better evaluate and select the best nursing homes, reports Forbes.
The refreshed website is called “Nursing Home Compare” and it features 21 new criteria that measure the quality of care at nursing homes across the country. The site also supplies information on complaints it may have received about a nursing home.
According to Forbes, within the site, the government assesses patients’ experiences in both long-term and short-term care facilities and make the information available on the site.
A later addition will include information about the number of civil money penalties and similar enforcement actions against the nursing home in the past three years, in addition to any other substantiated claims made against the nursing home.
The new criteria replaces 17 old pieces of criteria, and now focuses more on specific issues that affect many nursing home residents, such as pressure ulcers, infections, self-reported pain, falls, and general well-being.
Forbes reports the site will keep tabs on the percentage of residents at any particular nursing home who claim to have severe or moderate pain, the percent who have received a pneumonia vaccine, and the percentage who have been physically restrained.
The initiative is intended to help families compare nursing home performances in order to find the best fit for their family member before making a decision. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is overseeing the changes.
You can access the Nursing Home Compare Site at http://www.medicare.gov/nhcompare/.
