The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) have announced enhancement of the information available to nursing home residents, families, and caregivers on the Agency’s Nursing Home Compare website. On October 23rd 2019, CMS will display a consumer alert icon next to nursing homes that have been cited for incidents of abuse, neglect, or exploitation.
The Nursing Home Compare tool currently displays an array of information about nursing homes – including whether a facility meets federal standards with respect to health and safety compliance inspections, staffing levels, and quality measure performance. Previously, consumers could learn about past instances of abuse citations at a nursing home, but finding this information from its health inspection reports available on Nursing Home Compare required multiple steps. The new enhancement will make it easier to quickly identify nursing homes with past citations for abuse.
The new alert icon will be added to the Nursing Home Compare website for facilities cited on inspection reports for one or both of the following: 1) abuse that led to harm of a resident within the past year; and 2) abuse that could have potentially led to harm of a resident in each of the last two years. To ensure CMS is providing the latest information, the icon will be updated monthly, at the same time CMS inspection results are updated.
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More on this topic:
Modern Healthcare: CMS bringing transparency to nursing home abuse – https://www.modernhealthcare.com/safety-quality/cms-bringing-transparency-nursing-home-abuse