Can Consumers Trust Star Ratings?

“[The public is] not getting the five-star care that they believe they’re getting,” Mahan says.

Widower Howard Mahan reminisced about his late wife, Karen in a News5 article by Lori Jane Gilha. Mahan said that his wife was a resident at Touchmark on South Hill, a nursing home in Spokane, WA. Mahan claims that nursing home staff left his wife unsupervised while she ate allowing her to choke to death. The staff neglected to call 911 upon discovering her slumped over.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) rates nursing homes on a scale from one to five, with five stars indicating a quality of care “much above average”.  However, the standard depends on inaccurate data self-reported by the industry or based on the enforcement by regulators and investigators which are inconsistent at best. Scripp News found nearly 400 homes that were rated four or five stars that would have received a one star rating in another state.

The five-star rating system needs reform. One of the ways a nursing home rating can drop is due to “immediate jeopardy” incidents, such as the death of Karen Mahan.  While it is true that Mahan’s facility dropped to three stars, over 200 four or five star nursing homes have experienced “immediate jeopardy” events.

Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), implores families to not solely rely on the five star rating system when evaluating where to send a loved one. He, along with several other government officials, believe that CMS ought to have a feature to compare homes nationally.

While the hope is that the system will improve, in the meantime, families should be advised to take into consideration more factors beyond the star rating given by CMS. Families should explore options in person, and take into account all the data available to them before making such an important decision.