State ranks high in nursing home improvements

Michelle Swafford

Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2004 | 10:57 a.m.

Nevada's skilled-nursing homes improved their residents' care and quality in the past two years more than those in most other states, HealthInsight said today.

Nevada's skilled-nursing homes ranked No. 8 out of 50 states for its improvement of the number of residents who had pressure sores and pain, both acute and chronic, said HealthInsight, which is a quality-improvement organization funded by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to ensure residents of Nevada and Utah receive quality care.

The results "far exceeded" HealthInsight's expectations, said Jackie Buttaccio, HealthInsight project associate. "They're all working to achieve in some fashion a greater level of success."

The quality-improvement program is voluntary, but all of the state's skilled-nursing homes are making attempts to improve, Buttaccio said, adding that HealthInsight offers educational workshops and other resources to help skilled-nursing homes.

Nevada's skilled-nursing homes have varying populations and many of them specialize in treating a certain type of patients, meaning they may focus on patients with bedsores so the percent would be higher.

The percent of residents who report being in pain in Nevada's skilled-nursing homes decreased to 10 percent for the three months ending June 30, compared with 16 percent for the three months period ending June 30, 2002.

Among residents who had short stays in skilled-nursing homes, 23 percent reported being in pain for the six months ending June 30, compared with 30 percent for the six months June 30, 2002.

National results were not immediately available.

Charles Perry, executive director of the Nevada Health Care Association, said the quality-improvement results are "a huge plus for all of us" and he is not surprised that Nevada outperformed most of the other states.

"We've always had the ability to do a better job than other places have and I'm tickled to death that we're getting recognition for that," he said, adding that many of Nevada's facilities are newer and the staff is better trained.

"The folks operating the nursing homes that take a lot of criticism will be able to look people in the eye and say we're doing a better job," he said. "Give us the tools we need and we can give you a quality product."

Consumers can learn how specific skilled-nursing homes performed by visiting Medicare's Web site at www.medicare.gov.