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Nursing Home Gets Low Marks

Posted on: Friday, 6 June 2008, 09:01 CDT

By Michelle Dynes

State inspectors reported that Mountain Towers Healthcare had 32 health deficiencies, which is more than double the Wyoming average.

By Michelle Dynes

mdynes@wyomingnews.com

CHEYENNE - A local nursing home, Mountain Towers Healthcare, is among those cited nationally as low performing, or "special focus facilities."

It is the only nursing home in Cheyenne to earn that designation from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

"The (special focus facility) program is intended to identify nursing homes that tend to yo-yo on and off the list of problem children," said Mike Fierberg.

He is spokesman for the Denver regional office of the centers.

"(Mountain Towers) had 32 health deficiencies," Fierberg added. "That's a lot when the state average is 13."

State inspectors check for quality of care and resident rights as well as dietary services, nursing and staffing, said Jean McLean.

She manages the Office of Healthcare Licensing and Surveys within the Wyoming Department of Health.

She added that the exams for low-performing facilities are no different than for other nursing homes. But once a facility is added to the "special focus" list, administrators have 18 months to remedy the problems.

Dan Stackis at Mountain Towers issued this statement:

"Resident care and safety are our number one concerns. We are committed to continually monitoring, identifying and improving resident care practices.

"Our facility underwent a survey last month. Several issues are in dispute, and we are working cooperatively with the state to resolve them.

"Until these issues are resolved, definitive survey results are not available."

Fierberg said improvements implemented last year could allow Mountain Towers to graduate off of the special focus facilities list - if it successfully passes 2008 inspections.

"We are encouraged by the results we're seeing," he added. "We hope that they are taking this to heart."

Mountain Towers is among those nursing homes cited with an orange "SFF" icon on the Web site "Nursing Home Compare" from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Nursing homes placed onto the "special focus" list must have a plan of correction and implement lasting improvements that inspectors can spot during the next visit.

They also are inspected every six months instead of once a year.

Medicare and Medicaid funding also can be pulled if care at these homes does not improve.

Fierberg said the motivation behind the centers' Web site is to provide increased scrutiny, which hopefully leads to better health care.

He added that the additional monitoring seems to work.

The special focus facilities list always has been a part of the "Nursing Home Compare" Web site, but the information was difficult to find.

The centers have changed that, making the list more accessible to nursing home patients and taxpayers. That improves the overall quality of care and shows that nursing homes on the special focus facilities list are taking action, Fierberg said.

"We want to encourage better quality health care," he added. "That's what this program is accomplishing. It shines the light to say, 'We need to do better.'"

(c) 2008 Wyoming Tribune-Eagle. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.

Source: Wyoming Tribune-Eagle

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