Don’t Rely on Nursing Home Quality Scores

When you are trying to choose a nursing home for a family member or friend, you want to do your research to make sure you are selecting a safe environment. One way to compare the service provided by different nursing homes is to look at their New York State inspection reports, and the quality score they are given. Five stars are the highest a nursing home can receive, and should indicate a nursing home is offering a safe environment for its patients and is up to health standards.

Unfortunately, nursing home negligence cases exist even in nursing homes with the highest ratings. We need to remember that nursing homes receive state inspections once every nine to fifteen months – and that part of the inspection is based on staff-created data and reports. Some instances of neglect or unsatisfactory conditions may not be noticed during a routine inspection – so a high score may not always indicate the best nursing home. The reverse can also be true – a nursing home that received a low quality score due to poor performance on their last inspection may have had a situation that caused the low score that was an isolated event and has since been corrected.

When choosing a nursing home, you should take the quality scores into consideration, but do not rely on those scores as your sole basis for choosing a home for your loved one. If you believe that you or a loved have been injured as a result of nursing home negligence, you should consult with attorneys who are experienced in the field of nursing home negligence to investigate and evaluate your claims. Lever & Stolzenberg nursing home negligence attorneys have the knowledge and the experience in the field of nursing home negligence to prepare and prosecute your case and recover an award of money damages for you or your loved one.