OSHA and the Patient Safety Act are two compliance issues that the DOL and ACA will be enforcing on a more vigorous level.
The Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act of 2005 (Patient Safety Act) authorized the creation of Patient Safety Organizations (PSOs) to improve the quality and safety of U.S. health care delivery. The Patient Safety Act encourages clinicians and health care organizations to voluntarily report and share quality and patient safety information without fear of legal discovery. The Affordable Care Act strongly incentivizes PSO participation for hospitals of 50 beds or more.
By January 1, 2017, qualified health plans in insurance exchanges may not contract with a hospital of 50 beds or more unless that hospital has a patient safety evaluation system and reports data to a PSO. The deadline originally was 2015, but has been extended two years to allow hospitals time to choose a PSO and begin reporting.
This map was created in order to show some general statistics about nursing homes throughout the USA, including the states with the highest numbers of complaints, those with the best health scores, and other important data. Users of ForMyParent can use a dropdown menu to choose the right state. Once you have selected the state, you can zoom into each nursing home to gain information and insight about the specific nursing home, including contact information, health score ranking, and cases of reported deficiencies.
ForMyParent was created to help those who have elderly parents and need information about nursing home facilities. ForMyParent gives you all the data you need, including maps of U.S. elder care facilities in your local area, with ratings for each clearly displayed.
Our law firm, Stern Law, is dedicated to fighting cases of elder abuse. We felt strongly that a tool was needed that anyone could use to help find the perfect nursing home that will provide quality care for an elderly loved one.
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You can compare the quality of healthcare for the elderly in various states by accessing a few states at ForMyParent and comparing:
A deficiency is a failure in some aspect of a nursing home that was identified in an inspection or through a complaint. The deficiencies can be associated with staff to patient ratios, hours of care provided per resident, and health and fire safety inspections. Health and fire inspections are conducted on a yearly basis, and more often in facilities with many complaints. Fire inspections evaluate issues such as the walls between buildings, and how well the facility can resist the spread of fire. Health inspections review a range of health issues in nursing homes. Skilled nursing facilities must meet over 180 regulatory standards to protect those in the facility. The issues reviewed in an inspection include:
You can easily find which states are best for nursing home care, as well as which states have the worst record for nursing home care. If you live in one of the states that has a poor record, how you choose the facility to care for your loved one is even more important, for the safety of your loved one.
What can you do if your family member has been a victim of elder abuse? When you place your loved one in a nursing home, it so that he or she will be cared for properly, will eat nutritious meals, have medications administered correctly, and will have compassionate and caring interactions with the staff. It is imperative that immediate action is taken when a case of abuse is discovered.
Nursing home residents who have suffered from dehydration, malnutrition, poor hygiene, over-medication, show signs of bruising from restraints or other signs of abuse are at great risk. If your loved one has been a victim of abuse, the first step is to report the abuse to the authorities and to the nursing home management, and then immediately connect with our firm so we can help you pursue justice.
If your family member is currently residing in a nursing home with a low heath rating, or that has multiple deficiencies reported, it is vital that you remain on constant alert for the signs of elder abuse. Carefully monitor your relative’s general demeanor, appearance, and watch closely for any symptoms of abuse, such as sudden weight loss, dry skin, signs of poor hygiene, appears to be overmedicated and groggy, as well as for any bruising, cuts or scrapes. If your relative has developed bedsores, or has been hospitalized while at a nursing home, get all the facts. It could be that the hospitalization is associated with a deficiency in the nursing home.
