How To Find Out if a Nursing Home Has Violations

Picking a nursing home for your elderly loved one might be one of your family’s most important decisions. After all, you’re putting your trust in that facility to provide around-the-clock care. Unfortunately, some of those nursing homes don’t live up to their promises of care. Mississippi Today ran a story last December that found only two out of the 200 nursing homes in our state failed to match the recommended staffing levels. That is just one resource that you should utilize when trying to find out if a nursing home has violations.

Inspection Reports

When conducting inspections, regulatory agencies look for deficiencies and grade them accordingly. Here are some of the general deficiencies that could be part of a nursing home inspection report:

• Resident Assessment: A nursing home needs to develop and implement a thorough care plan for each resident that addresses their specific needs. That plan also needs to include a timetable to implement the actions.
• Quality of Life: The nursing home should create an environment that reduces the risks of accidents while providing adequate supervision.
• Nursing and Physician Services: There should be sufficient nursing and physician staff that can meet the needs of every resident. Additionally, there should be at least one licensed nurse that supervises each shift.
• Nutrition and Diet: The facility should store, prepare, and serve food in a way that meets health and safety regulations (that are the same standards that they have at a restaurant).
• Resident Rights: The nursing home should honor the residents’ rights as detailed by the Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH).

Thankfully, you have many options on how to find out if a nursing home has violations. Here are some of the options you can review:

Mississippi State Department of Health

The MSDH provides an outlet for annual survey results of complaint investigations for all certified Mississippi nursing homes.

The Division of Health Facilities Licensure and Certification is the state agency that is responsible for regulating and licensing nursing homes. Here is how they describe their resources: “Since the division requires health facilities to be in compliance with state and federal standards, the level of care delivered is continually reviewed and upgraded so that patients and residents can be better protected from abuse and neglect.”

Medicare

The facility you will be transitioning your loved one will be making payments to Medicare. In order to get reimbursed, those facilities need to match a standard of care. If violations persist, that nursing home could be out of compliance. A typical Medicare inspection report includes the dates of the report and scores for various deficiencies.

ProPublica

ProPublica is a “nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism with moral force.” In addition to its investigative work, ProPublica also has a database of nursing home inspection reports for over 90,000 facilities.

Onsite Inspection

In addition to looking up the alleged violations online, you should also conduct a thorough onsite inspection of the facility that you’re considering for your loved one. Here are some of the actions you should take to get the full picture:

Talk to All of the Staff

As you visit the facility, you should talk to all the staff and not just the person who is taking you on the tour. If you have the opportunity, spend some time off the tour in the activities room. It would be best if you spoke to staff at all levels to get their sense of the place.

Check Out Residents’ Grooming

One of the many responsibilities a nursing home staff needs to take care of is helping residents with their personal grooming. As you make your way through the facility, look at the condition of residents’ clothing, fingernails, hair, and smiles.

Sample the Food

Try to schedule your visit at mealtime. That will let you see how the staff brings the residents together. It will also afford you an opportunity to sample the food and check out the menu for the week. It doesn’t have to be gourmet level, but it should still be nutritious and flavorful.

Review Activities

The nursing home should have a robust schedule of activities for its residents. Those activities should accommodate all levels of mobility and other challenges. These activities are ways for residents to engage with each other and maintain their cognitive and motor skills.

Watch for Response Times

During your tour, you might have a chance to see the staff’s response times to medical care and general well-being calls. It would help if you also talked to as many residents as possible to assess their feelings about how the staff treats them.

Ask About Visiting Times

A nursing home should have an open visiting hours policy. In other words, it shouldn’t be restrictive. You should be able to visit your loved one at reasonable hours throughout the day and into the evening.

When There Is a Violation

If you uncovered a violation in a nursing home where your loved one is currently residing, you might want to get advice from the lawyers at Pittman, Roberts & Welsh, PLLC. We have been successful in taking on nursing homes to seek a remedy for violations and neglect. These are challenging cases, but that does not mean they should be ignored. Call to set up a consultation to discuss your concerns today.