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CNN Live Today
Government Releases New Information on Nursing Home Care
Aired April 24, 2002 - 14:40 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Choosing a nursing home is a difficult decision, but it's one that more and more families will have to face. So today, the federal government is releasing new information about the quality of care available.
CNN medical correspondent Rea Blakey has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I didn't think you were home, and I had knocked on the door instead.
REA BLAKEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Morris Danoff (ph) says he has his wife back. Three months after entering a nursing home following a stroke, Janet once again walks with assistance.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Left, right. Oh, I am doing good.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You are doing wonderful.
BLAKEY: She remembers family and loves reading.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is going to be a murder mystery.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know I love you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I love you too.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're getting a kiss. I don't care.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of the places we went to, it looked like God's waiting room. They were really, really old, and they required so much help. Another place we went to there was 140-something patients there and they only had two therapists.
BLAKEY (on camera): We are at Keswick Multi Care Center in Baltimore Maryland, once known as the home for incurables. As a reporter who has been to a number of nursing homes, I must admit, Keswick does seem to stand out as a model of quality care. (voice-over): Sure, the care can vary widely among the nation's nursing homes. In a first-of-its-kind program, the government's Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is publishing information measuring specific markers of care, holding nursing homes accountable for quality.
TOM SCULLY, CENTERS FOR MEDICARE & MEDICAID SERVICES: We really believe that it's easier to find a restaurant than it is to find a good nursing home, and patients and their families, you know, need more information about quality nursing homes. That's really the goal.
BLAKEY: A pilot program begins immediately in six states. Quality-of-care measures are available at www.medicare.gov for nursing homes in Maryland, Ohio, Rhode Island, Florida, Colorado and Washington State.
LIBBY BOWERMAN, KESWICK MULTI CARE CENTER: I think that the average person who is looking for a nursing home for themselves or for their loved one will begin to have some information they can compare one nursing home to another.
BLAKEY: Improvement in walking is one of three measures used to rate short-term stays. Pain management and how often patients show signs of delirium are the other two. Measures for longer stays include things like infections, weight loss and bedsores.
As executive director of Keswick, Libby Bowerman likes the fact raw numbers will be adjusted to level out the playing field.
BOWERMAN: For example, at Keswick, we have met a lot of individuals who already have skin breakdowns. The risk adjustment will prevent us from looking like we have developed those within our facility.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are very supportive of this. We think that it is a very bold step for the administration and for long-term care, one that is long overdue.
BLAKEY: Still, there no substitute for getting into the nursing home to visit where you can use your own senses of how the place looks, whether it is clean or not, how it smells, and the friendliness of the staff.
Rea Blakey, CNN, Baltimore.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(INTERRUPTED FOR BREAKING NEWS)
PHILLIPS: We are going to go back to what we were talking about, and that is, how do we find that perfect nursing home for our loved one? It is a really tough decision. Trudy Lieberman of Consumer's Union and editor of the "Consumer Reports Complete Guide to Health Services" joins us now to talk about this. Trudy, a lot going on this morning -- thanks for standing by and playing along with us here.
TRUDY LIEBERMAN, CONSUMER'S UNION: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: All right. Let's talk about the news today that has come out about nursing homes. And is this much needed improvement?
LIEBERMAN: Yes. This gives consumers another tool that they can use in selecting a nursing home. And nursing homes are one of those things that people really don't want to have to deal with. But there is a lot of information out there, and consumers need to tap it, so that they can make the right choice for a loved one. It is kind of a difficult decision for any family to make, but fortunately, the new data coming out from CMS today and a number of other things can help people in the process.
PHILLIPS: How do you know when it is time to put someone in a nursing home? Obviously a bunch of different factors, but does there ever come a point where it is definitely a really good idea?
LIEBERMAN: Well, there are really two ways people get into nursing homes. One is after an illness that lands them in the hospital, like a stroke for example. Or sometimes people just grow increasingly frail. And as that happens, they may have some kinds of dementia, they may become disoriented, they may lose time and place, they may not know where they are, they may not be able to take care of themselves. And at that point, a nursing home becomes necessary.
PHILLIPS: All right. You have a number of tips for us. So let's get down to those. First of all, how do you get a list of homes in your area? What's the best way to do that, and ones that are credible?
LIEBERMAN: Well, the first thing you should do is contact your Area Agency on Aging through the Elder Care Locater. That's a government service that is available in almost every community in the country. And the people at the Office on Aging or the Area Agency on Aging can give you a list of nursing homes in your area. If you know that you have a relative that is going to be needing nursing home care in the future, it is really a good idea to start compiling your list and doing a little shopping beforehand, so that it doesn't become a terrible ordeal when have you to place someone there in a hurry.
PHILLIPS: Is the Elder Care Locater a federal government program?
LIEBERMAN: Yes, it is. Yes it is.
PHILLIPS: OK.
LIEBERMAN: The second thing that people can do is also use the Elder Care Locator to find the long-term ombudsman in your area. Also this is a federal government service. The ombudsman gets into the nursing homes. They know about nursing homes. They know about other kinds of long-term care services, and they can help guide to you a good nursing home.
Sometimes though, we found that you have to learn how to read the signals from the ombudsman, because sometimes they are not able to say exactly which nursing home is good, which nursing home is bad. But they might give you clues, like, well I wouldn't put my mom there, or maybe you want to look further. So you have to learn it pick up on those kinds of signals.
PHILLIPS: And also when you come across one that may of interest to you, you should just show up unannounced, don't you think?
LIEBERMAN: Absolutely. I certainly strongly recommend that people look at a nursing home unannounced, and one piece of information they should look for is a form called the 2567. This is the state inspector survey, which details very graphically the problems that inspectors have found in those nursing homes.
Now, nursing homes are supposed to make that very visible and available to the public. Sometimes they don't, particularly if they are trying to hide something or their survey isn't very good, they may not make it so available. So you need to know that it available and ask for it if you don't see it. Also on CMS Web site, you will find summary information from the inspection reports, and that might be helpful to you as well.
PHILLIPS: That's a great idea. What about the Consumer's Union nursing home watch list?
LIEBERMAN: Yes. We compile a watch list. We have done it for two years now. It is available on our Web site at consumerreports.org. And this pretty much details the homes that we have judged to be the 10 percent homes that have in each state that have somewhat questionable patterns of deficiencies on their state surveys. And some of the homes on that list have been on there twice. So you may want to look at that to begin your search.
PHILLIPS: Trudy Lieberman, wouldn't it be nice if our parents just lived forever and you didn't have to worry about these things?
LIEBERMAN: Yes, it would.
PHILLIPS: I think about that all the time. All right. Trudy Lieberman Consumer's Union, thanks for the tips on how to find a good nursing home for our loved ones.
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