Poor nursing homes abound while good ones are harder to find,says a survey released Tuesday that blames lax oversight of nursingcare facilities.
An analysis by the nonprofit Consumer Reports listed what itconsiders the best and worst of the nation's 16,000 nursing homes --including two of the best and one of the worst in the San FernandoValley.
'It's a national disgrace that 20 years after landmarklegislation was passed, nursing homes continue to provide poorcare,' said Trudy Lieberman, director of the Center for ConsumerHealth Choices and author of the report.
'People in nursing homes are frailer and sicker than everbefore.'
In 'Nursing Homes: Business as Usual,' the New York-basedconsumer advocate found that not-for-profit nursing homes generallyprovide the best care.
It also found that independent nursing homes are generallysuperior than those run by chains, saying that unaffiliatedfacilities tend to have more staff and registered nurses.
State nursing home industry officials took issue with the report,saying it used old data and unfairly lumped nursing homes withhospital nursing care or psychiatric services.
'They really have missed the mark on this one,' said Betsy Hite,spokeswoman for the California Association of Health Facilities,which represents the state's nursing homes.
Nursing home care, she added, has actually improved.
'It's so flawed, I frankly consider it an actual disservice toConsumer Reports, which many people rely on for goods and services.'
Consumer Reports based its conclusions on evaluation of recentstate inspection reports for nursing homes.
The report, available online and in the September issue ofConsumer Reports, ranked homes according to inspection surveys,staffing and quality indicators, listing top and bottom 10 percentof nursing homes.
The report also discusses the influence of politics on the 1987federal nursing home reform law, with violators receiving tokenfines -- or no fines at all.
'We couldn't agree more,' said Mike Connors of the Pasadenaoffice of California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform, which hassued the state for failing to investigate nursing home complaints ina timely manner.
'Poor care is business as usual for many California nursinghomes.'
A representative of the state Department of Health Services,which oversees nursing homes, could not be reached for comment lateTuesday.
California contains three of the nation's worst dozen nursinghomes, including Fountain Gardens Convalescent Hospital in LosAngeles, according to the report.
A Fountain Gardens administrator did not return calls.
In the San Fernando Valley, Consumer reports recommended AlamedaCare Center in Burbank and Glendale Memorial Hospital and HealthCenter. Sherman Oaks Hospital was also recommended but closed itstransitional-bed unit last year.
The magazine suggested avoiding California Healthcare & Rehab ofVan Nuys, listed on a Medicare Web site with 28 deficiencies. Acompany official did not return calls.
Only 2 percent of for-profit nursing homes and 7.3 percent of not-for-profit homes met Consumer Reports standards for quality nursinghome care.
What's needed, Lieberman said, is tough federal and stateoversight and enforcement for the 1.6 million people who live innursing homes.
'What's amazing to me is that things are really going in thewrong direction,' she said. 'The feds pull their punches ... theregulation process in the states have been swamped by politics.'
dana.bartholomew(at)dailynews.com
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