The Lowest Ranked Nursing Homes in Florida
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), a subsidiary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is the federal agency which oversees nursing homes.
They mandate that the facilities are regularly inspected to make sure that they are adhering to all regulations. Part of this is making sure they have their disaster preparedness plans in place to ensure the safety of residents in dangerous situations.
The agency administers an online database which ranks nursing homes and establishes which ones are the most troubled. The homes are ranked on a scale of 1 (worst) to 5 (best), based on various categories such as quality of care, inspections and staffing, and how quickly issues that need correcting are addressed.
Among 145 of those located within a 100-mile radius of Miami, 10 nursing homes received one star. They are, in alphabetical order:
- Coral Bay Health Care and Rehabilitation
- Coral Reef Nursing and Rehabilitation Center
- Fair Havens Center
- Floridian Nursing and Rehabilitation Center
- Franco Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center
- Golden Glades Nursing and Rehabilitation Center
- Heartland Healthcare Center Kendall
- Hillcrest Health Care and Rehabilitation Center
- The Nursing Center at Mercy
- South Dade Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, also known as Gramercy Park Nursing Center
The Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills, a 152-capacity for-profit facility, is not on this list. During Hurricane Irma in September, there were prolonged power outages throughout Broward County and the facility’s air conditioning system was not functioning due to the hurricane and as a result, several of their residents died from the extreme heat.
The center’s safety ranking is at two stars. Deficiencies were found regarding garbage disposal and food safety. In addition, 25.9 percent of their “short stay” residents needed to be hospitalized again after admission to the nursing home — the state averages 23 percent — and there is a higher-than-average rate of pressure ulcers, falls with major injuries and urinary tract infections in their longer stay residents.
However, they were given an above average rating for staffing and the amount of time that they spent with each resident every day. Also, their most recent state inspection reports did not notice any deficiencies in their emergency plans, something that could have helped prevent the deaths during the hurricane
Although not on the worst of the worst list, clearly The Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills had some red flags before the hurricane hit, which points to a need to reevaluate the ranking system.
If their emergency plan could be deemed to be safe and effective, yet deaths resulted because they did not provide a simple solution to a power failure — namely, installing a backup generator to power the air conditioning system — perhaps it would be beneficial to rethink the way the rankings are given. If an individual wants to know more about the lowest ranked nursing homes in Florida, they should consult a skilled nursing home abuse attorney that can answer their questions, and protect their right in the event of a personal injury case.