Great Comment lost in vacation

Greg Pawelski left a great comment on a post on the impact of private equity firms buying nursing homes. But, I was on vacation and didn't get around to looking at comments til today. So here is the Comment in it's entirety:

Greg Pawelski has left a new comment on your post "Private equity firms do not affect nursing home qu...": 

Staffing Cuts and Mounting Patient Care Problems at Manor Care's Pennsylvnia Facilities under Carlyle's Ownership 

A new analysis of federal government data reveals staffing cuts and a surge in violations at ManorCare’s Pennsylvania nursing homes while under Carlyle’s ownership. Average nurse and CNA staffing has actually decreased to just 3.29 hours per resident per day (HPPD) at the 20 Pennsylvania Manor Care nursing homes that have undergone annual surveys since Carlyle acquired the company on December 21, 2007. (1) Nurse staffing was cut by 21.4% to just 3.05 HPPD at Manor Care Health Services –
Lansdale, a 170 bed facility in Montgomeryville. (2) In addition, none of the 20 facilities provided the 4.07 hours of care identified by experts in a 2001 study as the threshold below which quality of care is compromised. (3) This staffing data may help to explain a surge in violations of federal health and fire safety standards at these facilities, which increased 31% overall to 202 violations in their post-buyout surveys. (4) 

Government survey records describe the tragic stories behind these violations: 

ManorCare Health Services - York South was cited in January 2008 and again in May for two separate incidents involving a failure to timely notify a physician of a resident’s change in condition. The residents involved in both incidents died. In January, a resident with a history of fainting and at a known risk for falls fell and died several days later as a result of blunt force head trauma sustained in the fall. Incomplete information was faxed to a physician’s closed office, but a physician was not actually called for more than 17 hours after the fall occurred, during which time the resident exhibited symptoms of increased confusion and vomiting. (5) In May, the facility again failed to timely notify a physician after a resident, whose medication carried a known risk of side effects including heart attacks, complained of head and chest pain and had elevated blood pressure. The resident went into fatal cardiac arrest late that night. (6) 

ManorCare Health Services at Mercy Fitzgerald was cited by government inspectors for failing to provide timely assistance to a resident who had amputations of both legs, whose repeated requests for assistance in using the bathroom went unanswered over the course of half an hour. (7) 

Donahoe Manor was cited for failure to follow state law and its own policies requiring an FBI criminal background check for an employee who had been hired more than 9 months earlier, and for hiring a dietary aide who worked on the tray line and delivering carts before his tuberculosis skin test was completed. (8) 

(1) This average is weighted to reflect different homes census level. The staffing data is based on information from “About the Nursing Home–Inspection Results,” Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Nursing Home Compare data, downloaded 7/22/2008 and 11/09/2007. Under federal law, nursing homes must be inspected every nine to 15 months. 

(2) Ibid. 

(3) Ibid. 

(4) Ibid. 

(5) MANORCARE HEALTH SERVICES-YORK SOUTH, Incident investigation and a State monitoring visit, 01/09/2008, F-0309. 

(6) MANORCARE HEALTH SERVICES-YORK SOUTH, Medicare/Medicaid Recertification, 

State Licensure, Civil Rights Compliance and Incident investigation survey, 05/22/2008, F-0309. 

(7) MANORCARE HEALTH SERVICES AT MERCY FITZGERALD, M edicare/Medicaid Recertification, State Licensure and Civil Rights Compliance Survey, 01/08/2008, F-0309. 

(8) DONAHOE MANOR, Medicare/Medicaid Recertification Survey and State Licensure Survey, 01/07/08, F-0226, F-0630. 
Posted by Greg Pawelski to LTC Reform at October 6, 2008 9:18 PM

Norman DeLisle, MDRC
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