The Berkshire Eagle reports that the New Boston Nursing Home facility in western Massachusetts was sold for $525,000 (or about $9,500 per bed). The new owners renamed the facility Berkshire Rehabilitation and Skilled Care Center and plan to invest $500,000 in upgrades. Here is the full text of the article: (Continue reading…)
The publication Consumer Reports maintains a useful site with information on nursing home selection. They also maintain a state-by-state report nursing homes to avoid and nursing homes to consider using their own Nursing Home Quality Monitor. The main site can be found here and the Massachusetts listings can be found here.
More information on Consumer Report’s ranking criteria is available here, and the following is a list of the Massachusetts Nursing Homes to avoid that were on Consumer Report’s August 2006 list: (Continue reading…)
The OCULAR SURGERY NEWS reports on a case in which a doctor was alleged to have made false claims to Medicare and Medicaid for office and nursing home visits performed by a nurse practitioner without proper supervision. Interestingly, the case was reported to authorities by a whistle blower who was able to keep $50,000 of the $250,000 settlement.
Here’s the article: (Continue reading…)
Attorney General Tom Reilly obtained an emergency court order to take over the 91-bed Governor Winthrop Nursing Home over allegations that it failed obtain adequate supervision of its 60 residents over the holidays. According to the AG’s press release the facility did not have a director of nursing, a nurse manager, or a nurse unit supervisor, and the administrator had given notice that he was resigning effective December 29, 2006. The nursing facility is owned by defendant Winthrop Healthcare Investors, L.P., of Roswell, Georgia. Here is the full press release: (Continue reading…)
The Cape Cod Times reports that two nurse’s aides were fired from Harborside Healthcare in Falmouth after one allegedly bruised a resident’s hand and the other twisted the neck of the same patient’s stuffed animal. State DPH officials had previously sited the 120 bed facility with deficient care issues in September 2006. (Continue reading…)
Today’s Wall Street Journal has a long (3000+ words) front page article on a year-old Vermont program called Choices for Care which allows the use of Medicaid and other sources of funding to be used to pay for personal care givers in the home. While it has always been possible to create a nursing home environment in a person’s home or apartment, cost is the issue. For seniors that do not require round-the-clock care or supervisions, in-home care options are more attractive and programs like Vermont’s make it more attractive. Here are some excerpts from the article: (Continue reading…)
MetLife’s 2006 survey of nursing home costs estimates the average cost of a private room in a Boston-area nursing home to be $102K per year (and $93K for a semi-private room). The survey also provided estimated costs for Worcester-area nursing homes which put the cost at $100K for a private room. The national average cost was $75K for a private room and $67K for a semi-private room. A PDF copy of the 20 page report can be found here.
Tom Reilly announced endictments against former owners of five nursing homes on charges which included patient neglect, Medicaid Fraud, theft of nursing home patients’ personal funds, conspiracy to steal those funds, and with embezzlement of employee wage deductions. All five of the nursing homes involved were either sold off or shut down in 2003 and 2004.
More details in the AG press release: (Continue reading…)
The Boston Globe has a font-page article on a new type of nursing home that will be opening in Chelsea in 2008. The new model is called a “Green House” and will be structured as a self-contained set of 10 bedrooms clusted around an open Kitchen and living area and serviced by 2 personal care attendants. The expansion of the Green House concept is being funded by a $10 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Here are some excerpts from the article: (Continue reading…)
From a NBC news Portland affiliate WCSH6 news report: (Continue reading…)