North Sunflower Medical Center is responding this week to a Senate report on America’s nursing homes that listed Walter B. Crook Nursing Facility among six nursing homes in Mississippi that have gotten less than stellar reports from surveyors.
Walter B. Crook is a 60-bed facility operated by NSMC on its Ruleville campus.
The hospital said that it believes the nursing home appeared on the list provided by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services due to an incident that occurred about five years ago.
In 2015, the facility was put under the Special Focus Facility designation for three months.
According to the report titled Families & Residents’ Right to Know: Uncovering Poor Care in America’s Nursing Homes, the Special Focus Facility program is designed “to increase oversight of facilities that persistently underperform in required inspections conducted by state survey agencies.”
NSMC told The E-T this week they believe this is all tied to one patient who had multiple instances of falling in 2014, which resulted in the hospital going under SFF in 2015.
“We believe this was based on the 2014 survey involving a single resident with sustained multiple falls, despite various interventions put into place,” the hospital said in its statement. “We implemented new procedures in place with three satisfactory surveys based on CMS guidelines.”
NSMC also provided The E-T with a letter addressed Jan. 7, 2016 to NSMC advising the hospital that Walter B. Crook had been released from the SFF designation.
“The facility has completed two standard surveys without deficiencies above a scope and severity of an “E” and has had no complaints with a scope and severity above an “E” during that same time period. The facility has successfully met the criteria for removal from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ SFF list.”
NSMC Administrator Billy Marlow said the nursing home has not had any major incidents since the one in 2014.
“We welcome anyone to tour our facility at any time,” Marlow said.
