Arizona continued its upward trend in nursing home care, moving up one spot to No. 7 overall in the latest nursing home ranking, 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.
Arizona’s nursing home ranking was buoyed by scoring above average grades in 6 of 8 statistical categories and by erasing all of the previous report card’s failing grades.
“Arizonans should be proud of their repeated nursing home success,” said Brian Lee, Families for Better Care’s executive director.
According to the report card, Arizona catapulted its grade in the percentage of nursing homes with deficiencies from an “F” to an “A” by increasing facilities with clean inspection reports by nearly 20 percent. Additionally, fewer Arizona nursing homes are abusing and neglecting residents as the state’s percentage of nursing homes with severe deficiencies dropped to its lowest level in any report card.
Despite these gains, the report also exposed a glaring blemish. Nursing homes with above average inspection scores soured when compared to the previous report card, dropping more than 30 percent.
“Fewer Arizona nursing homes are scoring good inspection ratings than ever before,” Lee said. “It’s much tougher for families to find nursing homes with outstanding regulatory performance, something that needs to be addressed by operators if the state wants to continue its nursing home success.”
Arizona’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.
