Alaska is the best. Texas is the worst.
<0> Families for Better Care, Inc.Brian Lee, 850-224-3322Executive Director </0>
, a Florida-based nursing home resident advocacy group, published the first-ever state-by-state .
The group scored, ranked and graded states on eight different federal quality measures ranging from the percentage of facilities with severe deficiencies to the number of hours frontline caregivers averaged per resident per day.
The report has generated a lot of interest and garnered coverage on CBS Evening news –
“We’re excited about getting this report into the hands of public officials, nursing home owners, advocates, and — most importantly — residents and their families,” said Brian Lee, Families for Better Care’s executive director. “Our goal is to applaud those states that provide good care while motivating improvement for those that score poorly.”
Top nursing home states included Alaska, Rhode Island and New Hampshire while Texas, Louisiana and Indiana hit rock bottom.
“A distinctive trend differentiated the good states from the bad states,” Lee exclaimed. “States whose nursing homes staffed at higher levels ranked far better than those with fewer staffing hours.”
Three states (Alaska, Hawaii, and Maine) scored “superior” grades in every staffing measure and each ranked among America’s best nursing home states. Conversely, of those four states with failing marks (Georgia, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Texas) each scored below average grades.
“The data reflect what academicians, residents, families, and ombudsmen have heralded for years; the higher the staffing levels, the better the care," Lee explained.
Other key findings included:
“Slipshod care has festered for decades in far too many of our state’s nursing homes, culminating into thousands of painful or deadly blunders for elderly and disabled residents,” Lee stated. “It’s beyond time that states take a hard look at their nursing home care and figure out what’s working so residents receive safer, more affordable care.”
The 2013 Nursing Home Report Card is available for download at .
Families for Better Care, Inc. is a non-profit citizen advocacy group dedicated to creating public awareness of the conditions in our nation’s nursing homes and other long-term care settings and developing effective solutions for improving quality of life and care. Families for Better Care is located in Tallahassee, Florida. For more information, visit .