Lee Bowman and Thomas Hargrove of Scripps Howard News Service looked into nursing homes around the country and found the quality of care to be quite uneven, highlighting the difficulty of finding a good nursing home.
Despite the differences in care, Bowman and Hargrove were able to draw some conclusions from their analysis of the Nursing Home Compare data:
- Institutions run by for-profit corporations generally get lower scores than those run by nonprofits.
- Homes with more nursing staff per patient generally do better in the ratings.
- Homes with more than 100 beds tend to get lower scores
- Ratings are lowest in South and highest for homes in the Northeast.
- Slightly more than 20 percent of nursing homes nationwide have been regularly given the lowest ratings, and 12 percent to 13 percent have received the top rating.
Bowman found that, because of medical concerns, many families are forced to choose a nursing home on a very tight timetable, usually related to a loved one’s hospital discharge date. Concerns like expedience and geographic proximity, then, often end up trumping nursing home quality. To help better direct this process, Bowman offered “Ten things to consider in nursing home care,” only one of which directly relates to the Nursing Home Compare database.
For ideas on how to localize stories on this general theme, check out the rest of the Scripps package.
Slim guide:
Covering the Health of Local Nursing Homes
Check out AHCJ’s latest volume in its ongoing Slim Guide series. This reporting guide gives a head start to journalists who want to pursue stories about one of the most vulnerable populations – nursing home residents. It offers advice about Web sites, datasets, research and other resources. After reading this book, journalists can have more confidence in deciphering nursing home inspection reports, interviewing advocacy groups on all sides of an issue, locating key data, and more. The book includes story examples and ideas.
AHCJ publishes these reporting guides, with the support of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, to help journalists understand and accurately report on specific subjects.
Recent workshop
AHCJ’s Aging in the 21st Century workshop, held Oct. 16 and 17 in Miami, addressed many topics raised by the Tribune’s reports, as well as the changing picture of aging Americans and key research and issues related to this growing population. Tip sheets and presentations from that workshop are available to AHCJ members, as are these related tip sheets:
- Aging Nation: Troublesome Health Care Issues
- Headlines an advocate for seniors would like to see
- The impact of aging upon health care
- Covering nursing homes and other issues of aging
- How will retiring boomers affect the national health agenda?
- You Can Run, but You Can’t Hide: Policy and Problems in Long-Term Care
- Biology of Aging: Sources and Resources
