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Alice Stanley, administrator at The Living Center, which is attached to the hospital, said the deficiencies cited in a recent state inspection are "related specifically to documentation issues," and pointed to a report from the federal Office of the Inspector General showing that "91 percent of all nursing homes that participate in Medicare or Medicaid in the United States receive deficiencies."
" … The Living Center participates in routine, unannounced state inspections, called surveys, at least twice each year. If deficiencies are found, the facility is required to develop and implement a plan of correction, which is submitted to the state for approval. We have submitted our plan of correction and are awaiting a revisit from surveyors. We hope to receive word that we have cleared such alleged deficiencies shortly," she said.
Ott and Stanley emphasized that deficiencies cited applied only to The Living Center and not to the hospital.
Refusal of payments to the facility for new Medicare and Medicaid admissions are common when facilities are cited for deficiencies, but, said Stanley, "this penalty has no effect on our existing residents, and only penalizes the facility for those residents (who) are admitted during this time period and for whom Medicare and Medicaid would normally pay for services."
Ott said he welcomed the opportunity to speak to the public on the subject.
"We certainly take this citation seriously … however, we do want to let people know that this is not an unusual situation within the long-term care industry. The long-term care industry is highly regulated, as we believe it should be, for the safety and well-being of our elderly population," he said.
"Through the hard work of our staff and facility administration, we were able to clear any issues noted by the Department of Health and Senior Services and remain fully committed to addressing any concerns or allegations," said Ott.
On the Net:
Information about nursing home inspections:
http://www.medicare.gov/nursing/aboutins...
Information about any nursing home:
Contact Kathy Fairchild at marshallhealth@socket.net
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Capitalistchick:
I understand your frustration. It's hard when you care so much & work so hard, but yet get no support or guidance from administration. When you have repeated poor surveys year after year administration does have to be held accountable. Normally you would have to blame the D.O.N. or/and the administrator, but from what I've seen in this situation a lot of times their hands are tied by hospital politics. The Living Center should be separate from the hospital but it's not allowed to be. Ron Ott and all his (for lack of a better term) clipboard nurses have more influence on what goes on at The Living Center than the employees of The Living Center. You can't run a nursing home like you do a hospital. You can't support your staff from an office desk. You can't know what's going on with your residents unless you're out there seeing them & talking to them. The elderly deserve only the best. They've worked hard all their lives and now it's our turn to care for many of them. They at least deserve honest answers instead of vague, misleading responses that are in this article. Most of us, God willing, will grow old. When I get there I hope I'm blessed with caring people like yourself.
I posted this information yesterday on the front page and thought it should probably be here also.
Here is some information on nursing home inspections that was not mentioned previously and hopefully this will answer some questions. When you have an inspection and the surveyors find something wrong, which is very common because nobody's perfect, they give you a citation referred to as a deficiency. The home is required to submit what is called a Plan of Correction to the Dept. of Health & Sr. Services (DHSS). DHSS is then required to make a revisit to make sure you corrected the problems. If you haven't corrected the problems then at that point they deny your Medicare/Medicaid payment for new admissions. This is not so common. They then give you the opportunity to correct the problems again. On the second revisit, if problems still aren't corrected, then you usually get denial of payment for all payment sources. You're once again given a chance to correct the problems. If on the third revisit corrections are still not corrected you risk losing your Medicare/Medicaid contract. Rarely do they allow a fourth visit. I contacted DHSS today. They told me that The Living Center's last survey was 7/24/08 which I already knew. On this survey they had multiple deficiencies. You can look it up on the Nursing Home Compare web site. They also told me that The Living Center has had THREE revisits and are still not completely corrected. Some of the deficiencies were and others were not. I'm guessing this is where the statement regarding the documentation issues come into play. DHSS will be making a fourth visit. This is all public information that I got with one phone call. As far as staffing, DHSS does have minimal staffing requirements that must be followed by all long term care nursing facilities. Depending on the acuity of care it's not recommended to just follow the minimum and I'm in no way suggesting The Living Center does this. Anyone thinking of placing a loved one in a nursing facility needs to ask the potential home what their nurse to resident ratio is or just ask them how many nurses & nurse aides they usually have on any given shift.
Thanks Just FYI, and others who care about this issue. I'm relieved to not be the only person here who wants the elderly to receive top notch care they deserve. It's appalling that Marshall doesn't have bragging rights to the BEST nursing home in the state. It is entirely Ron Otts fault in my opinion that we do not. But frequently the blame gets put on the little people busting their butts in a bad situation. The brown stuff always runs downhill I suppose. I just wanted to take the opportunity to shove it back up that hill this week. Thank you to Marshall Democrat for running a story on it. I'm sure its a very difficult position to be in to have to run a story like that on one of your big advertisers. I hope you do follow up. Drop post.
Is our local hospital system growing facility-wise but forgetting the human factor? I think so.
Many long time employees have left in the past few months. This should be an indication that something is wrong. Patients pay in the long run when good employees cannot be retained. The HIGH turnover rate for both The Living Center and Fitzgibbon Hospital speaks volumes. A hospital isn't only the building, it is also the care and the people who provide it.
Value your employees, Mr. Ott! Without them all you have is a big building.
Anyone notice how quickly the story "disappeared" on the news story listing on the right. Some stuff stays up there for over a week. Guess how the elderly in the community are being treated isn't worth leaving up there for everyone to judge for themselves.
Have we just dismissed this with Ron Ott's word? Hopefully you are investigating further.
This clarifies nothing! And directly conflicts with what is known inside the hospital about this situation! So this had nothing to do with the Skilled Nursing Unit? I agree with JustFyi. Failing an inspection to the degree that you get payment withheld is serious. A lot more serious than documentation (Or does he intend to teach employees to lie on paper about work they did not do?). I heard it was patient care issues, like patients being left to lay in the same position all day long, which may not sound serious, but can lead to horrible bed sores that get infected with resistant bacteria. These care issues would not happen if there was an appropriate amount of staff present to take care of the patients. Way to obfuscate and blow everyone off about a serious problem Mr.Ott.
Let me begin by saying it is true 90% of nursing homes receive deficiencies. Some well justified while others are just at the discretion of the surveyors interpretation of the regulations. Let me also say that according to the Nursing Home Compendium 2007 that in 2006 only 15% of nursing homes in Missouri received citations for deficiencies at the actual harm or higher level. Guess who was in that 15%. Refusal of payment to facilities for new Medicare & Medicaid admissions are not as common as Mr.Ott & Ms.Stanley would have you believe. I think we're having a little play on words when Mr.Ott uses the word "terminated" in relation to Medicare funding. You must have extended noncompliance before your Medicare contract is "terminated". Having your contract "terminated" and having Medicare funding withheld for new admissions are two completely different things. When I read the quote "this penalty has no effect on our current existing residents" it reinforced to me that possibly Medicare money is being withheld for new admissions. I think Mr.Ott & Ms.Stanley would both agree (or maybe not) that it takes more than a few documentation issues to make this happen. Anyone who wants to get information on an inspection not yet posted can call 573-522-1516. This will put you in contact with the MO Department of Health & Sr.Services. The number was posted on their web site.