WellSky has presented Grand Lake Home Health & Hospice with the Home Health CAHPS Award of Distinction. This award is presented to home health organizations that have demonstrated superior performance in 2021. National best practice agencies have excelled in one of the most important measures of an agency’s quality program– patient experience. Based on a comparative analysis of agencies involved in WellSky’s Home Health CAHPS system for the past year, the overall satisfaction or likelihood of recommending survey questions place Grand Lake Home Health & Hospice in the top 25% of WellSky’s National Home Health CAHPS database.
Four nursing facilities and two assisted living facilities have been place in receivership with the State of Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals (DIA) after the owner notified them that they were unable and/or unwilling to continue operating. On January 23rd, the owner of Blue Care Homes LLC notified the department that they would not be able to meet the needs of its residents at the six care facilities. Receivership ensures that the residents are safe during this time. Iowa Courts have appointed someone to take over the finances and operations for the facilities while the residents are transferred to a new facility of their choosing. Michael F. Flanagan, in conjunction with Mission Health, was appointed as the temporary manager of these facilities and immediately assumed control of the operations until all 263 residents are safely relocated to a facility of their choice.
On January 18, 2023, CMS issued a Quality, Safety & Oversight Group memorandum announcing its initiative to improve nursing home safety and transparency. Specifically, CMS will conduct audits to determine whether nursing homes are appropriately diagnosing and coding patients for schizophrenia, and based on the audit findings, CMS will adjust the quality measure star ratings if inaccurate coding is discovered. Additionally, CMS will post all citations that a nursing home receives on the Nursing Home Care Compare website to provide consumers with transparency. In a pilot audit of nursing homes conducted earlier this year, CMS found several issues related to inaccurate coding and diagnosis of residents with schizophrenia, including a lack of comprehensive psychiatric evaluations and misdiagnosis based on conditions or behaviors related to dementia, rather than schizophrenia. Accordingly, CMS will launch off-site audits of nursing homes to identify problematic coding and diagnosis, with the goal to reduce the use of unnecessary antipsychotic drugs, which CMS indicates are often prescribed to residents who are erroneously diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Judgment was entered today on a $30.9 million jury verdict issued this week against long term care provider Plum Healthcare and its skilled nursing facility known as Pine Creek Care Center in Roseville, California. The plaintiffs in the case, Sam Rios, Jr., deceased, his wife and his eight adult children, were represented by attorneys Edward P. Dudensing, Jay P. Renneisen and Andrew J. Collins. After a ten week trial, the Sacramento jury found defendants Plum Healthcare and its parent company Bay Bridge Capital Partners liable for reckless, malicious, oppressive and fraudulent conduct in the care of Sam Rios, Jr., who was an 86-year-old resident in their skilled nursing facility for two weeks in April of 2017. The verdict is believed to be the largest nursing home elder abuse verdict ever in the greater Sacramento and San Francisco Bay Area regions.
Last week, the Senate and House filed the base budget bills for the 2024-2025 biennium. The Texas Health Care Association (THCA) applauds the Legislature for including the long-term care profession as part of both SB 1 and HB 1. “We thank both chambers for recognizing the need to strengthen the long-term care profession during the 88th legislative session,” said Kevin Warren, President and CEO of THCA. “I am grateful for the strong leadership of Senate Finance Chair Joan Huffman and House Appropriations Chair Greg Bonnen. We are encouraged to see the Legislature acknowledge the ongoing challenges and support needed in long-term care facilities across Texas.”
Marjorie Kruger was stunned to learn last fall that she would have to leave the nursing home where she’d lived comfortably for six years. The Good Samaritan Society facility in Postville, Iowa, would close, administrators told Kruger and 38 other residents in September. The facility joined a growing list of nursing homes being shuttered nationwide, especially in rural areas. “The rug was taken out from under me,” said Kruger, 98. “I thought I was going to stay there the rest of my life.”