Feds rate nursing homes in Lynn area

LYNN – Both the Lawrence Manor and Life Care of the North Shore nursing homes in Lynn have been given low scores on a new federal rating system that highlights staffing, quality and health measures in an effort to help families make educated decisions when choosing a nursing home.The brand-new system, unveiled on the government Web site Medicare.gov this week, rated nursing homes on a 1-5 scale, based on a health inspection, staffing measures and overall quality.Life Care of the North Shore scored one out of five on the survey, while Lawrence Manor scored a two out of five. More specifically, both of those facilities scored a one out of five on the health inspection portion of the survey.Phillips Manor and the Abbott House, also in Lynn, scored four out of five on the overall survey, including four out of five on the health inspection.The Lighthouse Nursing Care Center in Revere achieved the highest score of area nursing homes, scoring a five out of five. Annemark Nursing Home, also of Revere, scored four out of five on the survey.The purpose of the federal star rating is to provide consumers with a user-friendly method when making a decision on a nursing home for a loved one. The results are designed to help steer families toward the best facilities and all nursing homes must pass state and federal regulations, including health inspections, in order to stay open.Many states, including Massachusetts, already have a user-friendly ranking system for nursing homes. In place for almost a decade, the Massachusetts rating system is based solely on health inspections, which most professionals feel is a the truest way to assess a facility’s quality.In contrast to the results listed this week in the federal survey, the state’s rankings show both Lawrence Manor and Life Care of the North Shore have scored near or above average on the state’s health inspections, with Lawrence Manor scoring 127 and Life Care scoring 116. The state average score is 122.According to the new federal survey, health inspection scores are determined by a team of trained health inspectors who conduct on-site health inspections, on average, about once a year. Inspectors look at the care of residents, the process of care, staff and resident interactions, and the nursing home environment. The data from the last three standard health inspections and all complaint inspections that have been conducted in the last three years were used to calculate the rating.Unlike the on-site health inspections, staffing and quality information was self-submitted by each facility. Quality measures come from data that nursing homes routinely collect on all residents at specified times, including a subset of 19 quality measures used to calculate the quality measure rating.Staffing ratings come from overall staffing hours, which include Registered Nurses (RNs), Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs), Licensed Vocational Nurses (LVNs), and Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs). Other types of nursing home staff such as clerical, administrative or housekeeping staff are not included in theses staffing calculations.To calculate the rating, the number of staff hours per resident per day was used and then the information was case-mix adjusted. Case-mix adjustments take into account the different levels of resident needs (or mix of cases) in different nursing homes, according to the federal Web site.While still scoring low on the federal health inspection, Lawrence Manor did achieve a five out of five rating on the quality portion of the survey, and a two out of five in staffing.Life Care of the North Shore scored a three out of five in staffing, but was again given one star when it comes to quality.According to a press release, the new survey did receive minor criticism, but was well received overall by nursing home professionals. Local administrators say the health inspection is the most important part of the survey, which is flawed in some areas.”Health inspections are the gold standard when sizin