Happy to be deficiency-free!
What are the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)?
In order to make sure the providers of Medicare and Medicaid services are up to snuff, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services contracts with individual state agencies to conduct yearly onsite inspections. As part of the Federal government’s Department of Health and Human Services, CMS takes this job very seriously.
Over four or five days, a team of experts evaluates a facility’s care of the residents, thoroughness and accuracy in documentation, safety policies and protocols, and food quality. They look at everything from resident satisfaction to rescue procedures in order to determine if the facility meets the 150 regulatory standards set by state and federal agencies.
How can you see the results of their surveys?
CMS posts their results on a special website called Nursing Home Compare. You can check information about several areas of skilled nursing facilities, all at the same time. To view Edgewood’s profile and those of other area facilities on the CMS site, click here. The results are shown using an easy to understand the star rating system, similar to that used by Google and other online rating sites.
What makes a five-star facility?
There are four aspects of care that are evaluated to determine the star rating of a skilled nursing facility on the CMS site. Survey history is one. It takes time for the new survey data to make its way to the online database but once it does, you see five stars for facilities with deficiency-free surveys. The other factors determining star rating are staffing (is it much above average?) and quality measures such as pain and pressure ulcers (are the percentages low?) Here’s what you know, the five stars didn’t come easy and the site provides a user-friendly way to compare facilities within a city or region so that you can make an informed choice.
