Ohio’s nursing homes admitted more than 172,300 people in 2021, with an average of about 86,000 present any given day. These facilities provide an important service for a vulnerable population in exchange for an extraordinary share of the state’s budget.
I recently wrote an article about 16 nursing homes within the Arbors at Ohio chain that have been repeatedly accused of poor or negligent care, sometimes in ways that contributed to patients’ deaths.
Some of those accusations came from Ohio Department of Health inspectors. Others came from private plaintiffs in county court.
Several websites proved invaluable in my reporting and may be useful for anyone searching for a facility or evaluating a current one.
Finding out whether a given home is safe – or who’s responsible when something goes wrong – is harder than it should be. The information is spread across federal and state databases, buried in esoteric inspection reports and, as I found during my reporting, sometimes hidden behind layers of corporate paperwork. Here’s how to find what you need.
How do I find out if an Ohio nursing home is good?
You can start with two government tools. The first is published by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Care Compare rates all licensed nursing homes on a five-star rating system. Don’t just look at the overall rating, pay special attention to the staffing number. Lawyers and experts I spoke to emphasized it’s often the strongest signal of quality of care. Will Eadie, an Ohio attorney who has sued operators of several nursing homes, told me staffing is a facility’s largest expense and, “Kind of the root of most nursing home problems.”
Second, the Ohio Department of Health publishes its own Long-Term Care Quality Navigator to compare nursing homes across the state.
What does the star rating actually measure?
Three things that contribute to the overall score.
Staffing is the one to look at first. It measures long-term turnover and staff hours per day and takes into account the different licensees (doctors, nurses, nurse assistants, etc.) on staff. As industry critics argue, it’s a harder figure for nursing home operators to game because it’s based on records and documents, not figures a nursing home counts on its own.
Annual inspections make up the second input. Nursing homes are supposed to be inspected once a year, but an inspection can also be triggered after people file complaints. The rating is based on what inspectors found.
Lastly, there is a quality measure – a formula based on a variety of health outcomes like falls, bedsores and others, the kinds of preventable injuries at the center of our investigation.
One caveat: the star ratings are just a starting point to help narrow your list. The quality score relies partly on data reported by the facility itself and an inspection that reflects a snapshot of a moment in time.
Stay up to date: Read our past coverage on Ohio nursing homes, Deadly neglect lawsuits and fines follow Ohio nursing home chain
How do I read an inspection report for a nursing home?
You can read all of a home’s inspection reports on CMS’ Care Compare website, but I find this much easier via Nursing Home Inspect, a free database run by the investigative newsroom ProPublica. It allows for state-to-state comparison and more clearly tracks penalties and citations.
When you open a report, look for the severity of each problem, listed as a deficiency. This blog post from a Baltimore law firm spells out the somewhat complex deficiency grading system, which is translated into a number for the star system.
Inspectors rank the severity of problems and how many residents they affected. The incidents in our reporting – a resident left with a worsening bedsore, patients treated for heat stroke after a zoo trip, a man ‘dumped’ at a hospital after a house call – surfaced from documents like these.
Who actually owns the nursing home near me?
This is harder than it should be, and critics say that’s by design. In our investigation, I had to trace the Arbors at Ohio facilities back through a maze of separate operating companies, land-holding companies and out-of-state trusts to a management firm in Kentucky.
This is important because, as an Ohio Department of Health spokesperson told me, inspectors consider facilities on a one-off basis, not as derivative units of a corporate parent.
But you might still find value in looking at how a chain operates and its broader record.
CMS’ Care Compare lists ownership information for each facility and publishes “Nursing Home Chain Performance Measures” that show how many states a chain operates in, how its facilities are rated and other details. On a three-year rolling basis, the site includes information on fines resulting from inspection reports of units within a facility.
What do I do if I think someone’s being neglected at a nursing home?
If someone’s in immediate danger, call 911.
Otherwise, you can file a complaint with the Ohio Department of Health, which inspects and regulates the state’s nursing homes. The fastest way is through the online complaint form. You can also email details – with any photos, documents or other info – to HCComplaints@odh.ohio.gov, or call 800-342-0553 if you don’t have internet access.
Complaints are confidential and can be filed anonymously. A report can trigger an unannounced inspection. In our reporting, one woman’s complaint about her husband’s discharge sparked an inspection of the nursing home. Inspectors substantiated her claims and cited the facility.
Whatever route you choose to file a complaint, document what you’re seeing as much as possible, including dates, names, photos, video, what staff and administrators tell you, etc.
Who can help advocate for me?
Ohio runs a Long-term Care Ombudsman program through the Department of Aging. The advocates based across the state can help you understand your rights, provide information on options and help resolve complaints. You can find the ombudsman for your area online or reach the statewide office at 800-282-1206.