While questions swirl around Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner’s involvement in a troubled nursing home chain, perhaps not enough queries are being raised about the overall quality of Illinois nursing homes in general.
Families for Better Care released its “Nursing Home Report Cards” for 2014. Out of all 50 states and Washington D.C., Illinois is the eighth worst (#44) for nursing home quality. Not only did Illinois earn a failing grade yet again, it worsened from the No. 42 spot in last year’s rankings.
To determine the rankings, Families for Better Care analyzed staffing data from the Kaiser Health Foundation, performance indicators from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Nursing Home Compare and complaint statistics from the Office of State Long-Term Care Ombudsman.
This was the formula used to calculate each state’s average grade for nursing home quality.
Sum of the Average Grades for: Professional Nurse Hours Per Resident Per Day, Certified Nursing Assistant Hours per Resident per Day, Percentage of Facilities with Above Average Professional Nurse Staffing, Percentage of Facilities with Above Average Direct Care Staffing, Percentage of Facilities with Above Average Health Inspections, Percentage of Facilities with Deficiencies, Percentage of Facilities with Severe Deficiencies, Percentage of Verified Ombudsman Complaints
The key findings note level of quality hinges on one major factor–staffing.
“The difference between quality nursing home care and subpar care boils down to an average of 22 extra minutes of direct care per resident daily,” according to the report.
However, one problem with the staffing data, which Families for Better Care acknowledges in its findings, is it’s often inflated, and therefore skewed, since staff numbers are self-reported and reviewed by neither the states nor the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
In Illinois, nursing homes averaged less than 2 hours and 15 minutes of direct resident care per day, even though there was an assumed increase in the amount of direct caregiver hours. One quarter of Illinois’ nursing homes reported having a “severe deficiency,” and the state earned an above average grade in only one category–health inspections.
Here’s a breakdown of the grading criteria for 2014:
Direct Care Staffing Above Average:
- Data: 55.87 percent
- Grade: D
- Rank: 38
Direct Care Staffing Hours per Resident:
- Data: 2.23 hours
- Grade: F
- Rank: 47
Facilities With Deficiencies:
- Data: 96.87 percent
- Grade: F
- Rank: 44
Facilities With Severe Deficiencies:
- Data: 25.85 percent
- Grade: D
- Rank: 39
Health Inspections Above Average:
- Data: 44.13 percent
- Grade: B
- Rank: 13
Professional Nurse Staffing Above Average:
- Data: 64.10 percent
- Grade: C
- Rank: 28
Professional Nursing Hours per Resident:
- Data: 1.52 hours
- Grade: D
- Rank: 38
Verified Ombudsman Complaints:
- Data: 73.63 percent
- Grade: C
- Rank: 22
You can view data, grades and ranks for 2013 here.
As for states with the best quality nursing homes, they are:
- Rhode Island
- New Hampshire
- Maine
- Vermont
- Delaware
- Florida
- Hawaii
- Arizona
- Utah
- North Dakota
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Kevin Hoffman is a Reboot Illinois staff writer who graduated from the University of Iowa with a degree in journalism, political science and international studies. He believes keeping citizens informed and politicians in check is the best way to improve Illinois and bring about common sense reform. Follow us on Facebook.