Nursing homes are troubled by ads

Judy Odierna

Thursday, Nov. 14, 2002 | 9:30 a.m.

Several Nevada nursing homes say a newspaper advertisement linked to the launch a new federal outreach program may be doing more harm than good.

They say the data released in a nearly full-page ad in the Las Vegas Sun and the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Wednesday doesn't present the whole breakdown of what the numbers actually mean, nor does it indicate which agency compiled the information.

The ad lists individual nursing homes in Nevada and how they fare in three categories involving residents' ailments.

"The average person will not have a clear understanding of what the data reflects," said Chad Stenslie, administrator for Delmar Gardens of Green Valley. "In the category of percent of residents with pressure sores, we have 5 percent at the given point in time they took this from. Then you look at Desert Lane Care Center and they have 21 percent.

"Does it mean we do a better job at preventing pressure sores or does it mean that Desert Land makes it a specialty to admit people with pressure sores?"

The federal Centers of Medicare & Medicaid Services introduced the $120 million Nursing Home Quality Initiative on Tuesday in a series of news conferences around the country. It also took out more than $2.5 million in advertisements in 71 newspapers, asking in each city: "How do your local nursing homes compare?"

The ad then listed the state average in three categories -- the percent of residents with pressure sores, those with the loss of basic daily tasks and those with pain -- along with 30 nursing homes from throughout the state.

The information in the ad was based on data collected by the nursing homes themselves from resident assessments, officials said, rather than from state records.

Several facilities that had higher -- that is, worse -- numbers in the advertisement had zero or one deficiency against them in state inspections. The state measures whether the nursing home meets minimum standards, items from patient care to the safety and cleanliness of the home.

Rob Sweezy, director of public affairs with the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services, stands behind the ads, saying they contain solid information -- although they may not give enough information.

"Consumers can take the quality measures into that facility and ask them what it means," Sweezy said. "You have this many people in pain so tell me what it means. There's nothing wrong with public reporting of information, and if it motivates the nursing homes to take a look at where they stand, then that's fine too."

Dr. Charles Moseley, an associate professor in the health care administration program at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, says the ad is misleading because it fails to adjust the numbers for risk.

"With pressure sore rates, some homes may have more people who are more prone to pressure sores than anything the homes have to do with," Moseley said. "It is not a good idea politically (for Medicare). They say they want to work with the industry, but this is certainly not the way to get the nursing homes to cooperate."

Nursing home officials said they don't want questions about the advertisement to taint the intent of the Nursing Home Quality Initiative, which is to offer advice and improvement procedures for nursing homes.

"The goal of it all, through HealthInsight, is to share information among ourselves to help everyone get better," said Paul Boyar, administrator for the Plaza Regency, who is also the president of the Nevada Healthcare Association. "(The data) should be used by families as just one of the tools when they go to visit a nursing home."