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Six SD nursing homes are among nation’s worst-rated [1]

['Makenzie Huber', 'More From Author', '- August']

Date: 2023-08-13

Six of South Dakota’s 98 nursing homes are on a federal list of the nation’s worst-rated care facilities.

Five of the facilities are eligible for a special program to improve quality of care through increased regulatory oversight, and the other one is already in the program.

The five eligible South Dakota facilities as of the July report from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services are Avantara Norton in Sioux Falls, Bennett County Hospital and Nursing Home in Martin, Dells Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Dell Rapids, Firesteel Healthcare Center in Mitchell and Riverview Healthcare Center in Flandreau.

One facility, Good Samaritan Society Sioux Falls Center, has been participating in the Special Focus Facility program for over two years. Two other South Dakota facilities graduated from the program within the last three years: Avantara Arrowhead in Rapid City and White River Health Care Center.

The Good Samaritan facility in Sioux Falls is a 98-certified bed nonprofit nursing home. The home was found in compliance during its last state inspection report in April and met criteria for its latest federal inspection. The home has been fined by the federal government four times — for a total of $122,000 — for violations since 2020.

Nursing homes are identified as special-focus facilities based on their last three standard health survey inspections. Special-focus facilities must meet more stringent criteria two times in a row to be eligible for graduation. The Good Samaritan Center needs to meet the criteria one more time to graduate from the list.

Because the number of special-focus facilities is capped, eligible facilities – even those that have earned CMS’ lowest ratings for quality — can’t be named a special-focus facility until other homes in the same state that are already in the program are terminated from Medicare and Medicaid or improve and “graduate” from the program.

That’s a process that can take four years or more. As a result, there are several homes in each state that are deemed eligible for special-focus status due to ongoing quality-of-care issues, but can’t actually enroll in the program. It’s also why four of the five eligible South Dakota facilities have waited between 18 and 26 months on the list. Bennett County is the most recent addition, spending three months on the list so far.

Typically, the homes that are deemed eligible for special-focus designation have about twice the average number of violations cited by state inspectors; they have more serious problems than most other nursing homes, including harm or injury to residents; and they have an established pattern of serious problems that has persisted over a long period of time.

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[1] Url: https://southdakotasearchlight.com/2023/08/13/six-sd-nursing-homes-list-special-focus-facilities-cms-medicaid-medicare/

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