Texas

• Texas is America’s worst nursing home state for the third consecutive report card.
• Texas nursing home care is miserably substandard as the state failed to score even one above average grade in any quality measure—in fact, flunking 5 of 8 statistical categories.
• Despite Texas’s abysmal showing in overall ranking (No. 51) when compared to other states, there was some good news for residents; nursing home direct care staffing hours nominally improved to 2 hours and 16 minutes of care per day, that’s four minutes more care every day since the previous reporting period.
• Although fewer than 30 percent of Texas nursing homes received an above average health inspection rating, that’s still 5 percent better than what was reported in the last report card.
• 1 in 5 Texas nursing homes was cited one or more severe deficiencies. Texas regulators cited 93 percent of the state’s nursing homes for violations of federal or state laws.
• Texas ombudsmen verified nearly every registered complaint for the third consecutive report card, indicating wide-ranging problems being reported by residents and their families about grossly inadequate quality.
• Texas nursing homes struggled to employ enough licensed nursing staff to care for residents; fewer than 10 percent of the state’s nursing homes scored an above average rating in professional nurse staffing, this ranks among the lowest nationwide—only Georgia and Louisiana ranked lower than Texas in this critical safety category.
• Texas nursing homes must do a much better job safeguarding the rights and health of those elderly and disabled adults needing nursing home care—if more money is required for reimbursement to pay for increased costs, then lawmakers must find a way to allocate these needed funds.

Read The Press Release