The Nation : Strict Nursing Home Reviews Planned

The government proposed new regulations to strengthen the inspection of almost 16,000 nursing homes, calling for more frequent, surprise visits of homes with poor records. With about 1.5 million Medicare and Medicaid patients being cared for in the 16,000 nursing homes nationwide, Health and Human Services Secretary Otis R. Bowen said the new rules would advance efforts by his department to upgrade standards and improve institutional care. The new inspection rules, based on recommendations by the National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine, make a number of major changes in nursing home inspections, including abandoning the standard annual inspection in favor of more frequent “unannounced and staggered” inspections of certain nursing homes.