Cross posted from Illinois Deserves the Truth by Jason Held
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the names of 131 nursing homes that made their "special focus facility" list. (This release of course came after discussions with the White House... hmmmm?) This list denotes facilities that merit extra attention by state and federal regulators because of severe deficiencies during inspections. Well no surprise to see that Illinois had a few that made the "special" list.
One of the newer facilities to make the list is the Harrisburg Care Center in Harrisburg, IL. Facilities that have not improved are International Village in Chicago and Berkshire Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in Forest Park. It is sad that these institutions have not improved their conditions after spending more than 30 months on this list. Something just isn't right. And two that have shown some improvement, but still on the watch list are Embassy Health Care Center in Wilmington and Alden Park Strathmoor in Rockford.
After all of the attention of late placed on the Nursing Home Industry, I for one am glad that CMS is putting this information out there. But it does go to show that there needs to be more accountability of nursing homes that continue to stay on these types of lists. Unfortunately, in Illinois nursing homes are not even required to keep liability insurance, thus many residents who are injured by these problems cannot get any type of redress. Now that is a TRAVESTY.
Also, this limited information just illustrates the lack of available resources that are out there for Illinoisans to make educated decisions on where to place loved ones.
Here is a link to the entire list as well as more information about how the list is compiled.
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