Nursing homes qualify for training
Aim to reduce bedsores, use of physical restraints
Primaris, the state's medical quality improvement organization, received funding from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid to train 159 nursing homes and 25 hospitals across the state this fall.
The training is free and will focus on reducing the number of bedsores among high-risk patients and physical restraints used for non-medical reasons.Medicare selected the nursing homes and hospitals based on their quality measure results.
"Sometimes it's a matter of that facility takes on sicker patients, so that may be the reason why they have a higher number than somebody else," Primaris spokesman Matt Heger said. "Or they may have some systems that need to be changed. That's kind of what we figure out, and we work with them to find the best way to work with everybody."
In St. Charles, Blanchette Place Care Center and Parkside Meadows Retirement Community qualify for the education.
At Blanchette Place Care Center, 27 percent of high-risk long-term-stay residents had pressure sores, which is more than twice the Missouri average, according to Medicare.gov.
Blanchette Place Care Center administrators did not respond to numerous calls for comment by Journal press time.
Gregg Laiben, Primaris medical doctor, said pressure ulcers come from lying in a position for a long time.
"Over time, the skin loses its integrity," Laiben said. "It forms an open sore and can go very, very deep and cause pain and increased risk of infection and debilitation."
Parkside Meadows on its Oct. 10 assessment was cited for failing to keep residents free from physical restraints unless medically necessary. That was corrected by Nov. 23, according to Medicare.gov.
Parkside Meadows did not respond for interview requests by Journal press time.
Laiben said restraints are sometimes used to control combative patients or those that are prone to falling. He said if a patient is in a life-threatening situation, restraints would be appropriate.
"If a patient gets bored and tends to wander around or get up out of bed, that's not a reasonable use of restraints," he said.
Laiben said the training would focus on other ways to engage the patients and to identify where other knowledge gaps are.
This is the third year Primaris has had funding for the program. Funding is available for all the hospitals that qualify; however, the facilities don't have to accept it.
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