Despite being added to the Special Focus Facility (SFF) initiative over one year ago due to noted deficiencies in safety and quality of care, a Michigan Nursing Home has not shown any improvement. The Special Focus Facility initiative was introduced…

A report recently released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) revealed that Medicare paid $5.1 billion in 2009 to skilled nursing facilities providing inexcusably poor-quality of care to the elderly and other…

The Office of the Inspector General in a report prepared in 2010 found that 13.5% of Medicare recipients experienced adverse events during a hospitalization. These adverse events resulted in extended stays in the hospital, lifesaving intervention and caused permanent injury…

Health and Human Services Inspector General Daniel Levinson suggested recently that nursing homes that misuse and/or overuse antipsychotic drugs should be penalized by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. This proposition was discussed during testimony to a Senate Special…

Nursing home inspections are performed approximately every 12 months to assure compliance with State and Federal regulations.  During the inspection process, the surveyor relies on interpretive guidelines formulated by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to clarify and/or…

Citizens For Better Care is a nonprofit advocacy agent for residents of  long-term care facilities, including nursing homes, located in Michigan. It is an excellent source of information about nursing homes, regulations that govern long-term care facilities and much more! They also…

A recent article by Nary W. Carter and Frank Porell in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society estimates that every year 6.4 million people over the age of 65 suffer injuries requiring medical attention. Medicare spends 8 billion dollars per…