Yuma, Arizona - When you or a loved one enters a nursing home, it is important to know the truth about the facility, not just what they show you during their walk-through.
A new study – analyzing the quality of nursing homes in all 50 states – found Arizona ranked No. 35 with the most complaints per nursing home facility in 2018.
The number of Americans residing in nursing care facilities has surged over the past half-century, rising more than 200-fold since the 1960s and nearly doubling in just the past 20 years.
With baby boomers retiring and the population aging in record numbers, finding quality care is more important than ever.
The Senior List today released a study on Which States Have The Best And Worse Nursing Homes using data report from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) 2019 report.
Arizona was No. 35 averaging 6.12 deficiencies (complaints) per facility. In comparison, New Hampshire had the fewest with just 2.59 deficiencies per facility.
As a result of these deficiencies, Arizona nursing homes paid $36,400 in penalties, compared to Nevada nursing homes which paid $0.
Below please find several national findings:
- Nationally, 15,000 nursing homes had 121,000 deficiencies (eight per facility) costing them $34 million.
- ‘Quality of Care’ – the most important function -- was the most common deficiency accounting for nearly 20% of all complaints. Followed by ‘Resident Rights’ (13%) and ‘Pharmacy Services’ (12%).
- CMS’s 5-star ratings system found a nearly equal proportion of 5-star facilities (20.6%) as those rated with just 1 star (18.9%).