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Nursing Home Checks Already In Place

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 5, 2008

Updated: 01/04/2008 10:55 pm

Regarding "Medicaid Shields Nursing Home Reputations at Patients' Expense" (Our Opinion, Dec. 30:

Florida's nursing homes support full accountability for the state's 700 nursing homes. No fewer than three-dozen federal, state and local entities regulate some aspect of nursing home care, and each maintains records available for public inspection.

No less a standard applies in each nursing home. All facilities must post in a public place (usually in the lobby) the results of its latest inspection as well as its own plan of correction if compliance violations are cited. Further, pertinent portions of those surveys are aggregated and posted on the state's Web site for the entire world to see, as is the clinical progress of the facilities' patients measured in 12 different areas and found at Nursing Home Compare at www.medicare.gov. This wealth of information may not be organized or presented as The Tampa Tribune would have it, but it's unfair to suggest that useful information is somehow being kept from the public in order to protect evildoers.

The "secret" government information in question - a list of 128 "Special Focus Facilities" nationally - identifies those nursing homes in need of additional attention in maintaining compliance and improving quality, which is the ultimate goal, not to "shame some nursing home owners into sustained action," as the Trib put it.

Public chastisement and condemnation are not effective tools in improving quality, be it with nursing homes or anything else. Instead of urging more crackdowns, "shame" lists and punishment, why not advocate for more of those things that have already provided dramatic, positive results? Quality improvement occurs when the facility's Medicaid funding is adequate, when regulation is fair and firm and when staff is well-trained and focused on improving patient outcomes. Yes, it's that simple.

DEBORAH FRANKLIN

Tampa

The writer is vice chair of Florida Health Care Association.

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