I would like to know of reports of incidents occuring at The Hermitage
(Hermitage A Beverly Hc nursing home) of Worcester, Massachusetts.  I
heard there is a report put out by the Massachusetts Attorney General.  Thank you.

---

Clarification of Question by lerich33-ga on 05 Mar 2004 04:26 PST

I would like to know how to access reports of incidents occuring at
The Hermitage (Hermitage A Beverly Hc nursing home) of Worcester,
Massachusetts.  I prefer to include access to a report put out by the
Massachusetts Attorney General.  Thank you.

Hello.

I checked with the Attorney General's site, and there is no report
about this particular facility.

The Mass. AG's site can be searched here:

http://www.ago.state.ma.us/txt/

A search on "hermitage" returns no results.  A search on "nursing
homes" will return a number of interesting documents about
prosecutions involving nursing homes throughout the state, although
again, The Hermitage in Worcester is not among them.


From what I understand of the oversight system in Massachusetts,
complaints made to the Attorney General's office would be
investigated, at the outset, by the Mass. Department of Public Health,
Division of Health Care Quality.  You can visit their website at:

http://www.state.ma.us/dph/qtool/qthome.htm

which offers a lot of information about their oversight role.

They also offer an online database search of complaints/inspection
records for individual nursing homes, including The Hermitage.  NOTE,
however, that the search function is very iffy and unreliable -- it
seems to work OK with some browsers, but not with others.  The search
page can be seen at:

http://www.state.ma.us/dph/qtool2/
Quality Rating Tool Search Page 

Enter the facility name -- Hermitage -- into the search box, and the
system will (hopefully) return a record that indicates a high score
and a very clean bill of health for this particular facility.

For the sake of convenience, I have duplicated the report information below.

The only criteria not met by The Hermitage was regarding an incident
in 2001 that had to do with not respecting the "dignity" of a patient
or patients.

  
I hope this information fully meets your needs.  But if you have any
questions about the answer I have provided, let me know by posting a
Request for Clarification, and I'll be happy to assist you further.

pafalafa-ga

==========

HERMITAGE-A BEVERLY HC FACILITY (TH
383 MILL STREET
WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS 01602
TELEPHONE: (508)791-8131 

Standard Survey Dates: 
11/17/2003 
12/16/2002 
11/5/2001 
Complaint Investigation(s): 
4/7/2003 


Change of Ownership: 
No Change of Ownership in reported time period 
Enforcement: 
  
  
  
    Jeopardy 
No Jeopardy Actions in reported time period 
    Substandard Quality of Care 
No Substandard Quality of Care Actions in reported time period 
    Termination 
No Termination Actions in reported time period 
    Denial of Payments 
No Denial of Payments Actions in reported time period 
    Admission Freeze 
No Admission Freeze Actions in reported time period OVERALL PERFORMANCE SUMMARY 

RESULTS:       Standard Survey - 131 of 132 Met     Complaint
Investigation Deficiencies - 0
              Score after adjustment for Scope and Severity : 131 

This nursing facility met 131 out of the 132 key requirements in all
five categories in its last three surveys. The number of deficiencies
not met as a result of complaint investigations is: 0 . The facility's
score is 131 after adjustment for scope and severity. 91% of all
facilities had a score of 131 or lower. The statewide average facility
score is 122.

-----

HERMITAGE-A BEVERLY HC FACILITY (TH
383 MILL STREET
WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS 01602
TELEPHONE: (508)791-8131 

PERFORMANCE SUMMARY FOR EACH CATEGORY 

ADMINISTRATION

RESULTS:    Standard Survey - 39of 39 Met     Complaint Investigation
Deficiencies - 0
Score after Adjustment for Scope and Severity :39

This nursing facility met 39 out of the 39 requirements reviewed in
this category in its last 3 standard surveys. The number of
deficiencies not met as a result of complaint investigations was: 0 .
The facility's score after adjustment for scope and severity is 39.
The statewide average facility score was 36.


NURSING

RESULTS:    Standard Survey - 33of 33 Met     Complaint Investigation
Deficiencies - 0
Score after Adjustment for Scope and Severity :33

This nursing facility met 33 out of the 33 requirements reviewed in
this category in its last 3 standard surveys. The number of
deficiencies not met as a result of complaint investigations was: 0 .
The facility's score after adjustment for scope and severity is 33.
The statewide average facility score was 29.


RESIDENT RIGHTS

RESULTS:    Standard Survey - 26of 27 Met     Complaint Investigation
Deficiencies - 0
Score after Adjustment for Scope and Severity :26

This nursing facility met 26 out of the 27 requirements reviewed in
this category in its last 3 standard surveys. The number of
deficiencies not met as a result of complaint investigations was: 0 .
The facility's score after adjustment for scope and severity is 26.
The statewide average facility score was 26.

	The following requirement(s) were not met. The regulation(s) survey
date and scope and severity rating(s) are listed below.
The facility ensures the dignity of each resident. (F 241)	11/5/2001E					

KITCHEN/FOOD SERVICES

RESULTS:    Standard Survey - 12of 12 Met     Complaint Investigation
Deficiencies - 0
Score after Adjustment for Scope and Severity :12

This nursing facility met 12 out of the 12 requirements reviewed in
this category in its last 3 standard surveys. The number of
deficiencies not met as a result of complaint investigations was: 0 .
The facility's score after adjustment for scope and severity is 12.
The statewide average facility score was 11.


ENVIRONMENT

RESULTS:    Standard Survey - 21of 21 Met     Complaint Investigation
Deficiencies - 0
Score after Adjustment for Scope and Severity :21

This nursing facility met 21 out of the 21 requirements reviewed in
this category in its last 3 standard surveys. The number of
deficiencies not met as a result of complaint investigations was: 0 .
The facility's score after adjustment for scope and severity is 21.
The statewide average facility score was 20.

hello.  you are fortunate to be making this inquiry now.  ten years
ago, there would not have been nearly as much information available to
you. In 1995, the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services issued the
toughest nursing home regulations in the history of Medicare and
Medicaid, which led to measurable improvements in quality of care for
nursing home residents.

If your State Attorney General has issued a report, it is probably
available on-line, by calling the Atty. Gen.'s office, or by writing
to request a copy.  Here's the website for the Mass. AG's Consumer
Protection Division:

http://www.ago.state.ma.us/con_pro/index.asp?head1=Consumer+Protection&section=17

Here's some background on what the government has done/is doing to
bring more accountability of nursing home administrators/facility
owners:

The Health Care Financing Administration [HCFA] now requires states to
crack down on nursing homes that repeatedly violate health and safety
requirements.  [This initiative, you should know, started with the
Clinton Administration in about 1995.]  It also gives consumers ready
access to comparative information about nursing home quality.  The
inspection process focuses on preventing bedsores, malnutrition and
resident abuse. States are now able to impose immediate sanctions,
such as fines, against nursing homes in many situations -- including
any time that a nursing home is found to have caused harm to a
resident on consecutive surveys. SURVEYS ARE NOW ROUTINELY CONDUCTED
OF ALL NURSING HOMES by State Agencies, usually through a State's
Health Department.  Nursing homes that do not fix the problems will
lose their ability to receive Medicare and Medicaid payments. 
Citizens may obtain copies of the surveys, as well as the nursing
home's response, and any follow-up surveys, through the FREEDOM OF
INFORMATION ACT process. To send an FOIA request, write a letter to
your State Health Dept., giving them the EXACT name & address of the
nursing home [Beverly is a HUGE corporation and has thousands of
facilities nationwide], and the YEARS for which you want the surveys. 
You may have to pay a photocopying fee.  I am a litigation paralegal,
and have worked on far too many lawsuits against nursing homes over
patient abuse and deaths caused by neglect.  I know from experience
that the surveys are voluminous, and unless you tailor and narrow your
request, you may get back thousands of pages.  You may be able to go
to the Health Dept and review the information once it has been
gathered up for you by the Health Dept. and then decide what you want
to have copied.  Asking for the last year or two of surveys is
probably sufficient.  The nursing home has an opportunity to reply and
to correct any problems found in the survey.  A follow-up survey will
then determine if the problem had been corrected or still remained.

Nursing Home Compare, HCFA?s Internet resource for consumers, includes
data about residents? health status at every Medicare- and
Medicaid-certified nursing home -- including data about the prevalence
of bedsores, incontinence and other conditions. This new information,
as well as nursing-home inspection results, is on HCFA?s consumer
website:  www.medicare.gov.

You can also use HCFA?s updated "Guide to Choosing a Nursing Home"
which helps families and friends step-by-step through the process of
identifying an appropriate home for a loved one. The guide includes
questions to ask, a nursing-home checklist and expanded information
about recognizing, reporting and preventing abuse and neglect.


Also, since 1998, states must investigate complaints alleging actual
harm to residents within 10 days.  They also must continue to
investigate the most serious complaints within two days, and other
complaints in a timely manner.
States now must conduct more frequent inspections of nursing homes
with repeated serious violations without decreasing their inspections
for other facilities.  And, States must consider the performance of
other facilities in a chain of nursing homes when determining
appropriate penalties against another facility in the same chain.

State inspectors now must stagger surveys and conduct visits on
weekends, early mornings and evenings, when quality, safety and
staffing problems may be more likely to occur.  State inspectors now
use new inspection protocols to detect quality problems in nursing
homes using a systematic, data-driven process. The new surveys focus
additional attention on preventing bedsores, malnutrition and abuse
affecting nursing-home residents.

HCFA has posted best practice guidelines on the Internet to help
nursing homes care for residents at risk of weight loss and
dehydration. HCFA works with the American Dietetic Association,
clinicians, consumers, and nursing homes to expand this repository.
The site can be reached at:
www.hcfa.gov/medicaid/siq/siqhmpg.htm.


Finally, all states have a long-term care ombudsman program.  The
ombudsmen serve as advocates for residents, help residents, their
families and their friends voice their concerns, and identify and
correct substandard conditions and potential incidents of abuse and
neglect.

Nursing homes are now also required to conduct criminal background
checks of employees.  There is a national registry of workers who have
been convicted of abusing residents.

If you have facing the difficult decision of placing a loved one in a
nursing facility, I hope you'll take advantage of these resources. 
Best of luck to you.