Department of Health highlights 2018 Nursing Home Inspection and Sanction Information

HARRISBURG – During 2018, Pennsylvania Department of Health surveyors conducted 4,716 surveys at Pennsylvania nursing houses, issuing 169 sanctions and finalizing civil penalties totaling more than $1.Five million, consistent with Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine.

“Every day, our workforce of surveyors are traveling nursing homes to make sure proprietors and operators are offering right patient care and constructing protection standards are being met,” Department of Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine stated. “We go to nursing homes for regular inspections and while we receive a grievance approximately a facility. This statistics is crucial to the families and cherished ones of the residents receiving care at nursing homes, so each month we are able to highlight what we discover and the moves we take.”

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The inspections, called surveys, consist of facts on nursing domestic affected person-care and constructing inspections. If a facility is cited for no longer following policies during the survey, it should publish a plan of correction that includes what’s going to be carried out to restoration the problem and a finishing touch date. The branch will conduct a marvel follow-up inspection to make sure the issue is resolved.

The department additionally may also difficulty a sanction. Possible sanctions consist of a civil penalty, a ban on admissions, a license being revoked, or a facility being put on a provisional license, which calls for, among different things, being inspected every six months. A provisional license can be renewed no more than three times. The department can return the power to a regular license if it’s miles glad that all deficiencies were corrected and it’s miles warranted.

In the January 2019 report, nursing home surveyors performed 504 inspections at 315 nursing houses, which include 295 complaint investigations. Also, forty-three sanctions have been issued in opposition to nursing care centers with civil penalties totaling greater than $706,000.

“If you see some thing at a nursing home that doesn’t seem right, we inspire you to speak up,” Dr. Levine said. “You can make a complaint anonymously through calling 800-254-5164, filling out the online criticism form, emailing [email protected] or sending the complaint in the mail to the department.” The department keeps a searchable database, which permits the public to view patient care surveys, building safety surveys, length of the nursing home, form of possession and further records approximately each of the nursing homes in the nation. The department oversees almost seven hundred nursing homes and extra than 88,000 beds inside nursing homes in Pennsylvania, in addition to different facilities, such as hospitals, ambulatory surgical facilities, home care businesses and others. Surveys are posted to the internet site 41 days after the survey is completed.