Tenn. Nursing Homes Get an F -- Facilities 3rd Worst in U.S., Fed. Report Says

from Commercial Appeal, The ..

NASHVILLE - The first federal effort to rate nursing homes ranked Tennessee's third worst in the nation and gave 30 percent of its nursing homes the worst rating possible.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released the report Thursday, evaluating 16,000 nursing homes nationwide.

The ratings are based on state inspections, staffing levels and quality measures, such as the percentage of residents with pressure sores, urinary tract infections and declining mobility. Each nursing home was given an overall score of one to five stars, with five stars being the best. The ratings are based on as much as three years of data, ending in November of this year.

Only Louisiana and Georgia ranked lower than Tennessee.

The Tennessean newspaper reported that most of the 319 Tennessee nursing homes in the report rated well below average, and less than 7 percent were judged well above average.

"This will give us an opportunity to really see how these nursing homes do stack up," said AARP Tennessee spokeswoman Karin Miller.

James Boyd of Nashville spent three years at Bordeaux Long-Term Care, a facility with a history of problems that rated much below average in the federal report. He moved out last year.

"It was always just short of help all the time," Boyd said. "That's what brings your care quality down. You don't want to be treated like cattle, and when they put you in the nursing home that's really what you're treated like."

More than 41 percent of Tennessee nursing homes had the lowest possible score in staffing levels. The state also fell behind in quality of care, a category in which 25 percent of nursing homes ranked much below average.

The ratings also follow several years of state and national scrutiny of Tennessee's nursing homes and an unprecedented number of complaints. Last year, the state conducted 3,035 complaint surveys, but this year from January through October 3,694 have been done.

Lola Potter, spokeswoman for the Tennessee State Veterans Home in Murfreesboro, which scored much below average, said the federal report does not reflect recent improvements.

"Over the past year or so, the Tennessee State Veterans Home has made key management changes and has improved overall staffing levels as well as policies in key areas, like administering psychiatric services and medication," Potter said. "All this is translating to a better quality of care that's not necessarily reflected in a single rating."

Originally published by Associated Press .

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