Medicare has unveiled a new website that contains quality ratings of nearly 16-thousand nursing homes in the U.S. Ratings of nursing facilities in San Diego vary considerably. KPBS Reporter Kenny Goldberg has more.
The ratings are based on state inspections, staffing, and quality measures, including how well a facility manages residents' pain. Each nursing home gets one to five stars in each category.
A number of San Diego facilities get good ratings, while others score quite low.
Some nursing home officials say the information is misleading. Medicare's Dave Sayen disagrees.
Dave Sayen: There is no better measure in my estimation of whether or not these facilities meet minimum standard of care, and having that information, I think we have a responsibility to share it with people in a way that they can understand, and that's exactly what we're doing.
Sign points out the ratings aren't everything. He says there's no substitute for actually visiting a nursing home.
