Iowa Capital Dispatch
Five of the Iowa nursing homes deemed by the government to be among the worst in the nation have met that criteria for at least two years. (Photo courtesy of the Iowa Department on Aging and Long-Term Care Ombudsman s Office)
Five of the Iowa nursing homes deemed by the government to be among the worst in the nation have met those criteria for at least two years, and one has qualified for four years, according to federal records.
The list of the nation’s worst-performing nursing homes, compiled by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, is known as the special-focus facilities list, and is updated quarterly. The special-focus facilities are those deemed by CMS to have “a history of serious quality issues” and they are enrolled in a special program that is intended to stimulate improvements in their quality of care through increased oversight.
By Todd Epp
Iowa coronavirus graphic.
DES MOINES, Iowa (KELO.com) With COVID-19 outbreaks growing in Iowa’s nursing homes, state inspectors report finding no infection-control violations in many of the facilities with the biggest current, active outbreaks.
As of Wednesday afternoon, there were 141 current, active outbreaks in Iowa nursing homes, according to the Iowa Department of Public Health. There are 5,725 infections associated with those outbreaks. That’s an increase of 236 from the 5,489 nursing home infections reported just 24 hours earlier.
The current number of nursing home outbreaks is also more than five times the number of infections reported in late September when there were 1,030 infections tied to 50 active outbreaks in Iowa nursing homes.