Using the Medicare Nursing Home Compare website, research one nursing home that displays a low level of quality as indicated by their Five Star Rating*

Using the Medicare Nursing Home Compare website, research one nursing home that displays a low level of quality as indicated by their Five Star Rating*

Hillcrest nursing home is one of the nursing facilities that offer healthcare in the United States. The facility is rated as a 2-star due to its low quality level. The facility has few staffing ratings, and most services offered are below the recommended quality, therefore, making it be a 2-star nursing home. Additionally, health inspections are rated poorly. Health inspectors carry out inspections to check whether the Medicare nursing home has met the requirements according to the Medicaid requirements. The recent review found out that the services offered are below the required quality.

Staffing is another factor that has made Hillcrest remain in its 2-star rating state. The number of staff in the nursing home determines the overall number of hours that each resident living in the household receives. If the nursing home is understaffed, the residents are more likely to receive less attention, which may disadvantage patients who require more specialized and closer attention. Hillcrest has limited staff, something that has led to its overall rating. Another factor that has led to its low score is the quality measures. The quality measures determine the resident’s clinical and physical needs. Due to the limited staff, Hillcrest has been poorly appraised on how it attends to its residents. Therefore, staffing, health inspections, and low quality measures are the major factors that have led to Hillcrest’s  poor performance.

Provide a general overview of the nursing home (e.g., name, location, bed size, ownership, etc.)

Hillcrest nursing home is located in North Muskegon in the United States. The 62-bed facility has a corporate ownership whereby community members have contributed to its overall growth and thus they have become part of the stakeholders (Li & Tang, 2016).  It was mainly started as a means of helping elderly people and those who have been prescribed different healthcare services from different hospitals. Therefore, the nursing facility aids patients and old people on issues such as dietary advice, caring for the people with different health challenges as well as providing medical services to those who might be unwell. Moreover, it helps patients with different health complications to recover as they continue with their medication once they are released from hospital. Therefore, its primary concern is to help its clients live better lives and improve on their health performance as well.

Discuss the quality performance of the nursing home as evident by its most recent health care inspection (e.g., deficiencies, life safety citations, financial penalties, etc.). This can be accomplished by thoroughly reading the nursing home’s statement of deficiencies and plan of action to correct quality deficiencies (CMS Form 2567).

The nursing home quality perforrmance is low. The decline in performance has been necessitated by the few healthcare providers in the nursing facility. The lower the number of staffs determines the quality of services that residents are likely to receive. Therefore, the quality performance is low due to insufficient staffs who are required to attend to all nursing home residents sufficiently. The life safety citations of the nursing home are relatively poor vis-à-vis its 5-star rating counterpart nursing homes. Most 5-stars have more staffs and offer high quality services while observing high complaint and standard qualities. Customer care services also play an important role as some nursing home facilities impose heavy financial penalties to their clients when they fail to clear their dues within the agreed period. I this case, the financial penalties for Hillcrest nursing home are unfavorable as the nursing home does not accord its customers friendly financial penalties, therefore, lowering its star ratings.

Discuss appropriate techniques that you would use to improve quality in the nursing home.

According to Heyhoe et al. (2016), one of the essential techniques is promoting respect and courtesy in the nursing home. Respect can involve taking care of all the issues that patients may have and responding to their claims in a positive way. Through this way, they are more likely to feel respected and loved. Another technique is practicing sanitation and good hygiene practices. Nearly everyone loves a clean environment, therefore, patients feel more comfortable when the environment in which they are living is clean. Another technique is through joining caregiver support groups whereby one gets adequate knowledge on how to take care of patients in the nursing home. Caregivers in most nursing hospitals are people who have high knowledge and skills in managing people with different health and body complications. Thus, caregiver groups can help the staff in the nursing home to improve the quality of care that they offer to their patients.

Discuss appropriate techniques that you would use to improve safety in the nursing home

Patient safety is one of the most fundamental aspects in a nursing home. The staff in na nursing home should ensure that they employ appropriate techniques to improve safety and ensure a good stay to the people under their care (Degenholtz, Resnick & Handler, 2016). One of these ways is to support a safety culture. It entails ensuring that all necessary things are done to ensure that the patient is in good condition and also making follow ups to confirm if they have taken medication as prescribed, for those who are under medication. Similarly, those with different body conditions should be kept comfortable. Another technique of improving safety is engaging the patients. When patients are engaged, they are more likely to say more on what they feel and what they want. A caregiver can also ask the patients of their progress, something that may enable them to determine patients that require more specialized and keen attention. Through this technique, it is more likely that the patients will let the caregiver know their problems in a more elaborate way.