It is unbelievable how nursing homes are allowed to rate themselves. Of course they will say anything to get the large amounts of money they charge for long term care or rehab. There is a nursing home in our town in the midwest that has a banner out front reading "perfect survey 2014". This is a joke considering I took the survey in 2014 and certainly did not give them a perfect score when my Mom was in for "rehab" Several incidents happened including a mysterious broken bone and other problems due to their neglect. They came up with this perfect survey in their own minds and someone will suffer for it. Good for the state of Texas to demand accountability!!
The whole survey process is conducted by individuals, and therefore subject to their interpretation. One year you may have a team with some really "hard" sticklers who will cite the facility for some very slight infraction, and another year you may have a team, who turn their heads to some things they know are difficult to enforce every single minute of every day. For instance: residents are not supposed to have any "drugs" in their rooms, including body powders or lotions, etc. because some demented patient may enter their room and injest the substance. However some family members may sneak in Mom's favorite scented powder and put it in her drawer. If the team finds this, some will cite you regardless of how it got there, and other teams will listen if you tell them that the family sneaks things in, in spite of every attempt to control the situation, and will understand that while you are trying to enforce every rule, you cannot control every single person at every minute of the day. I say "no" to the 3 strikes rule, as there are already steps in place to put nursing homes under state control until they bring their operation up to standards.
There is no way the nursing home should be able to rate their selves. We have one in our town, and everybody laughs at the rating because they know how bad the home is, yet they have five stars. By allowing the home to rate their selves, it makes the survey useless and nobody will give it any credit.
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Should Nursing Homes Play By a 'Three Strikes' Rule?
For instance: residents are not supposed to have any "drugs" in their rooms, including body powders or lotions, etc. because some demented patient may enter their room and injest the substance. However some family members may sneak in Mom's favorite scented powder and put it in her drawer. If the team finds this, some will cite you regardless of how it got there, and other teams will listen if you tell them that the family sneaks things in, in spite of every attempt to control the situation, and will understand that while you are trying to enforce every rule, you cannot control every single person at every minute of the day.
I say "no" to the 3 strikes rule, as there are already steps in place to put nursing homes under state control until they bring their operation up to standards.