Texas Gets a Failing Grade for Nursing Home Care

Families for Better Care has published the first ever state-by-state nursing home report card.

The Florida based nursing home resident advocacy group scored, ranked and graded states on eight different federal quality measures ranging from the percentage of facilities with severe deficiencies to the number of hours front-line caregivers averaged per resident per day.

More than one-and-a-half million Americans live in nursing homes, but the quality of care varies greatly. A recent report shows, for the first time, which states do a good job of caring for seniors and which fail to ensure that they won't be neglected or abused.  Alaska is the top rated state and Texas is the worst, according to the report.
The nonprofit elder advocacy group released what it says is the first comprehensive state by state review of nursing home care. It ranks and grades states based on 2012 federal data combining staffing, inspections, deficiencies and complaints.
According to the report, just seven states provided nursing home residents with more than one hour of professional nursing care daily. States that did the best had larger and more experienced staff. Advocates for the elderly say improvements must be made soon. The nursing home population is expected to increase 40 percent over the next decade.