Re-printed from the Hastings Daily Tribune by Tony Herman
The Blue Hill Care Center has taken the steps necessary to avoid losing reimbursements from Medicare and Medicaid, a federal agency spokeswoman said Thursday.
The nursing home got a ruling from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, known as CMS, that its residents no longer are in danger and it can retain its reimbursements. The Blue Hill Care Center had received Immediate Jeopardy citations from CMS after residents left the facility without staff knowledge. The incidents of “elopement” occurred Dec. 10, 2009, and Jan. 12.
The resident involved in the first incident was unharmed, but the second resident was experiencing hypothermia when found lying on the ground while the temperature outside was below freezing, a CMS spokeswoman said. The second resident eventually recovered. After a nursing home receives its first Immediate Jeopardy citation, it must submit a corrective action plan to the regional CMS office — in this case, the office in Kansas City, Mo. A CMS investigator then makes an unannounced inspection.
For the Blue Hill Care Center, that inspection coincided with the Jan. 12 elopement.
The Blue Hill Care Center received a $5,000 fine after the first incident and a $7,500 fine after the second one.
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As of Jan 27 the Blue Hill Care Center was slated to lose reimbursement for all new patients. The nursing home faced a Thursday deadline for getting a new corrective plan approved.
Julie Brookhart, Public affairs specialist for CMS in Kansas City, said the nursing home submitted it's plan of correction Jan. 28.
"They submitted that by the end of Janaury which allowed the state to go back in and revisit" Brookhart said. "They did revisit (Monday), and the state surveyor found it to be in compliance and immediate Jeopardy was abated. The facility was not terminated, and denial of payments for admissions had been lifted."
The Blue Hill Care Center is owned by Five Star Quality Care, a company headquartered in Newton, Mass.
John Tanner, regional director of operations for Nebraska with Five Star Quality CAre, wrote in an e-mail response to questions that his company took the nursing home's citations seriously.
"We believe that the state's initial findings in this situation were based on some factual errors and failed to take into account the quality of our internal policies and procedures and the strong efforts of our staff on behalf of our residents," he said.
"However, rather than argue about the matter we conclude we could best serve our residents by taking immmediate action to address the state's concerns and cooperate with state surveyors. We are very happy that the surveyors have agreed that we are now in full compliance with applicable state and federal regulations and that we will be able to continue to participate in the Medicare and Medicaid Programs."
Tanner said the corrective plan included an assessment of the facility's needs and installation of new equpment as appropriate.
We also provided agressive education and support to all levels of staffing at the facility and brought corporate and regional-level clinical and operational leadership to the facility to assist with training and oversight, " he said. " We are grateful that the state surveyors acknowledged the effectiveness of these efforts."
As a company, Tanner said that Five Star Quality CAre is "very pleased with the way that local facility, regional and corporate level staff responded quickly and worked together to satisfy the concerns expressed by state surveyors."
During a three-week period, three nurses frm the regional and corporate level provided assistance with clinical matters at the nursing home. Two operations managers from the region also came to Blue Hill to assist with operational matters.
Tanner said the nursing home has experienced personnel turnover recently, but that he could not comment on specifics.
"We can state that Blue Hill has experienced a leadership change that we believe will help facilitate continuing efforts to ensure high quality of services at the facility," he said.
The Blue Hill care Center has 62 licensed skilled nursing beds.
Citing state and federal privacy laws, Tanner said he also could not comment about whether any residents were moved from the facility because of the situation.
Tanner wrote that officials from Five Star are in regular contact with residents and their families about clinical and other operational matters at the facility.
"We strive to keep lines of communication open so we can resond to questions and helop residents and their families understand what is happening at the facility and how we can work gotether to meet thier needs, " he said.
Really? How about taking some responsibility here. It's not the state surveyors fault residents were taking off unbeknownst to staff. Blaming the surveyors is ridiculous. The staff shouldn't be blamed either for the failure of a company trying to squeeze every dime out of this nursing home as it possibly could. The "new equipment" is equipment that has been installed in other area nursing homes for at least 10 years and it took a large fine and two residents "eloping" for them to get the hint maybe such equipment was necessary? If the proper equipment had been installed long ago, maybe this wouldn't have happened. Several years ago I was driving down the hill by the nursing and saw an elderly gentleman lying in the road. Lucky for him and the nursing home I was in my car or a semi may not have seen him and run him over. This happened in the middle of July, I sat out there with him for 5-10 minutes before staff came out realizing this gentleman had gone missing so these latest instances are not a first. No reminders needed for me to not put my parents there. Can they not come out and say that the Administrator resigned/was terminated? It's rather obvious with ads out advertising for an Administrator and seems ridiculous not to say what their staff changes were. Another sign of for-profit healthcare at its finest.
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