Last week the the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released new ratings for nursing homes – both for-profit and nonprofit – that uses a five-star system to measure quality, staffing and health inspections, plus an overall score. Not surprisingly, coverage of Nursing Home Compare in many newspapers focused on the ratings assigned homes in their readership areas.
This makes sense, of course, because readers are less likely to be interested in CMS ratings for out-of-town nursing homes. And in an era where newspapers are increasingly orienting their pages toward ‘hyperlocal,’ the new CMS rating system – which is akin to the ranking in a Zagat restaurant guide – serves up a local angle on what is actually a national issue.
Some coverage, however, dug a little deeper. USA Today, for instance, conducted its own analysis contrasting the performance between for-profit and nonprofit nursing homes. And, while the Houston Chronicle played up the local angle, the paper also examined the data more closely, as it pertained to homes in its region, and highlighted reservations about the CMS ranking system. And a U.S. News & World Report blog pointed out some shortcomings.
There was a long list of stories about the system, and we’re wondering what you think about some of the approaches taken. Should the local angle trump other discussion? How important is it for a local newspaper, no matter how big, to poke around the data for more tidbits? Drop us a line.
