The federal Department of Health and Human Services, Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, has instituted a "five star" nursing home rating system.
The idea is to provide useful information to families and residents, consumer advocates and government officials.
Having spent 30+ years involved with nursing homes, and having been involved in all phases of the regulatory system, I am skeptical.
To be fair, CMMS includes the weaknesses in the rating system in the narrative explaining the system.
Nursing homes are the most highly regulated sector of the health care system, and are targets for consumer advocates, bureaucrats and on-the-make politicians.
Some snowy afternoon I am going to spend a few hours looking at some homes I am familiar with, and see if the rating system has any connection to reality.
http://www.medicare.gov/NHCompare/Include/DataSection/Questions/SearchCriteriaNEW.asp?
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1 comment:
That sounds real exciting. :)
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