Many State Nursing Homes Fail To Meet Federal Care Standards
Almost half of California's nursing homes do not meet federal standards for using patient restraints or preventing bedsores, according to lists released this week by CMS, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reports.
CMS hires private quality improvement organizations to oversee care standards at nursing home facilities. In California, San Francisco-based Lumetra has monitored health care facilities that receive Medicare payments since 1984.
Peter Ashkenaz, CMS spokesperson, said the next round of CMS contracts will require quality improvement organizations to spend 80% of oversight on the identified facilities. The three-year contract period begins August 1.
Lumetra failed to meet performance guidelines in its last contract, according to CMS.
Of an estimated 1,400 state facilities, the CMS report identified 674 as needing improvement regarding restraint use and bedsore prevention (Hines, Riverside Press-Enterprise, 2/6).