New Mexico ranks even closer to the bottom in nursing home care for the third consecutive report card, reports Families for Better Care, a national nursing home resident advocacy group based in Austin. The group published its third state-by-state nursing home report card by analyzing eight federal measures to gauge nursing home quality.
“Nursing home owners and state officials can’t seem to get nursing home care right in the Land of Enchantment,” said Brian Lee, the group’s executive director. “Failing to improve the state’s already dreadful nursing home record is absolutely shameful.”
New Mexico flunked two quality measures and managed only one above average grade overall. The state’s worst grades were in the percentage of facilities with above average inspections (20 percent) and the percentage of nursing homes with severe deficiencies (99 percent), ranking No. 51 and No. 49 in the nation respectively.
“Inadequate staffing is the underlying reason that so many New Mexico nursing homes are unable to achieve higher inspection scores,” said Lee. “Residents are unable to be cared for properly if they’re limited to 2 hours and 21 minutes of care per day.”
According to the report card, 1 in 3 nursing homes failed to achieve above average staffing levels.
“We hope this failing nursing home report card serves as a wake up call for Governor Lishan Grisham and New Mexico’s Legislature that their most vulnerable citizens deserve better care and treatment,” said Lee. “They can reverse the state’s trend of nursing home neglect by finally mandating, funding, and enforcing a tough staffing standard.”
New Mexico’s 2019 Nursing Home Report Card is available for download at http://www.nursinghomereportcards.com.
ABOUT FAMILIES FOR BETTER CARE
Families for Better Care, Inc. is a non-profit citizen advocacy group dedicated to creating public awareness of the conditions in our nation’s nursing homes and developing solutions for improving quality of life and care. For more information, visit http://familiesforbettercare.com.
