Any resident in New Mexico who has had to search for a nursing home to help provide care for their parent or another aging relative knows how difficult this process can be. Among the challenges associated with finding a facility that fits in a person’s budget and that has an available room when it is needed, families must try to assess the quality of care their loved one will receive.
While a nursing home should be a place where residents are kept safe, all too often they are the very places at which residents experience serious neglect, abuse or exploitation. Sadly, many families do not learn about these incidents until it is too late to help their relatives. While the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services does issue violations to nursing homes for these types of events, the reports can be hard for the average consumer to find. This inhibits a family’s ability to properly select a nursing home that they believe will provide a safe home for their relative.
According to a report from Modern Healthcare, the CMS has acknowledged this difficulty and will be instituting a new system designed to increase consumer visibility into nursing home violations. When reviewing a list of facilities on the CMS website, people will see a special flag next to the name of any nursing home that has received a violation in the prior two years. These violations could be for the exploitation, neglect or abuse of a resident.
The new system will be in effect by late October of 2019 and all flags will be updated on a monthly basis.