Kansas Advocates for Better Care has released its annual report on health safety inspections of nursing facilities for 2018. Several area facilities appear in the report’s “good” or “poor” performance columns.
KABC, a Lawrence-based nonprofit formed in 1975, compiled the list after reviewing the past three health safety inspections for all 344 nursing facilities, long-term care units and nursing facilities for mental health in the state. Facilities which fell between the good and poor criteria did not appear on the list.
Larksfield Place and Caritas Center, both of Wichita, were among 10 nursing home in Kansas with five or fewer inspection deficiencies in each of their three most recent inspections, which cover a period going back five years.
Nine other area centers landed on the KABC list of 49 nursing homes with 10 or more deficiencies in each of their three most recent inspections: Orchards Garden Rehab and Health, Legacy at College Hill, and Kansas Masonic Home, all of Wichita; Life Care Center and Victoria Falls, both of Andover; Diversicare of Haysville; Diversicare of Sedgwick; Wheat State Manor of Whitewater; and Villa Maria of Mulvane.
According to KABC, it’s not unusual for a facility to be cited for 10 or more deficiencies during one inspection, but being cited for that many during three consecutive inspections constitutes a “red flag.”
The average number of deficiencies in Kansas is 7.7 and the national average is 5.8.
KABC encourages people to look at a number of factors when evaluating nursing facilities. According to reports available on the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services website, kdads.ks.gov., the facilities cited in the KABC report have corrected the deficiencies cited in inspections or submitted plans to do so, although some have complaint investigations pending. Medicare.gov., the U.S. government site for Medicare, rates all of the facilities as providing “average,” “better than average” or “much better than average” quality of resident care.
