Lowest Rated Nursing Facilities in West Virginia
Nursing homes are intended to protect and provide for aging loved ones who can no longer carry on self-care on their own. Most people assume that nursing homes take this responsibility seriously to provide the highest level of attention possible. While this is certainly true in some locations, West Virginia is full of long-term care facilities that prioritize monetary incentives over the wellbeing and thriving of their residents. Most commonly, for-profit West Virginia facilities are to blame for sub-par nursing care, but even non-profits can suffer from inadequate care and negligence.
One of the most common reasons behind the steep decline in quality of care that nursing homes have exemplified over the past decade can be traced to incentivized profit. Whether the goal is to reduce staffing in order to avoid the payroll expenses or to offer treatments that are not needed because they bring in Medicare and Medicaid funds for the facility, nursing homes across America continue to hold money as king. West Virginia is not exempt from this habit, and the state is home to its own fair share of low-rated nursing facilities that have received numerous citations for abuse and neglect.
Below are ten (10) of the lowest rated* nursing homes in West Virginia.
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Why Medicare’s Website Is Your Best Friend
As you consider which nursing home to trust with the care that someone you love requires as you age, it can be challenging to determine which facilities are reputable. Medicare’s Care Compare allows you to view skilled nursing facility ratings, and which West Virginia nursing homes have received numerous complaints or even citations in the past. This is where Medicare’s online tools become invaluable.
Medicare manages a resource called Care Compare that allows you to examine all of the nursing homes in your local area to see critical information, such as their ratings in a variety of areas (quality of care, health inspections, fire safety, recent citations, staffing, etc.), as well as any fines they have paid and why. This can keep you informed and enable you to make a wise decision about which facilities to trust—and which to avoid.
Worst Rated Nursing Homes in West Virginia
West Virginia is home to more than 10,000 beds in the 120+ long-term care facilities in the state. This means that your options for nursing homes to choose can be very broad, giving you the opportunity to select a facility of your choosing. Many families regard CMS’ rating system highly in terms of health inspection scores and other inspection criteria. If you are currently evaluating which nursing home to select, or if your loved one is currently experiencing quality of life challenges in the facility in which they live, it is important to understand which of the state’s long-term care facilities have the lowest ratings from Medicare. Be aware of the inspection and rating scores of the following West Virginia nursing homes, which are currently scored lower than most other facilities in the state.
Ravenswood Village
The Ravenswood Village nursing home, located in the West Virginia town of the same name, is a for-profit long-term care facility with 62 certified beds. It accepts both Medicare and Medicaid and received a Below Average score on its most recent ranking by the Medicare care evaluation tool. While residents can expect roughly the average in terms of how many minutes each resident gets with a registered nurse per day (at 53), only one minute is spent per individual per day on physical therapy staff consultation.
One of the primary drivers behind the low overall score secured by Ravenswood Village is its number of citations; at 21 health citations, some of which resulted in confirmed cases of abuse or neglect, Ravenswood sits at nearly triple the national average of 8.1, and its most recent health inspection revealed a variety of issues. One resident was unable to reach or use the nurse call light due to weakness on the left side of the body, and the Ravenswood facility was cited for being aware of the issue and failing to move the call light to the right side of the resident so that it could be used. Another resident reported frequent missing hearing aids, the most recent incident of which had resulted in a hearing aid lost for six months. When staff were approached regarding the issue, they confirmed that the resident’s care plan contained no details regarding hearing loss or the proper treatment and care of hearing loss impairment and the use of hearing aids.
Teays Valley Center
Hurricane, WV is the hub for Teays Valley Center’s operations. The facility is for-profit and is owned by a limited liability company, maintaining 124 beds at the location. Teays Valley has received six citations for fire safety alone, totaling twice as many as the national average; these resulted from a variety of issues, including failure to ensure that heating and ventilation systems were properly installed and that electrical wiring and gas equipment were installed correctly. In terms of problems directly related to residents’ health and physical condition, the Hurricane, West Virginia facility has been cited 10 times.
The most recent health inspection performed by a certified agency noted that a resident’s documentation did not include critical information regarding that individual’s heightened risk of falling. Another resident was left in a fully raised bed with no access to the nurse call light after the call button had slipped underneath the bed and out of reach. When staff gave pain medication to another resident, they failed to follow up to determine if any side effects of the medication had arisen or if the pain of the individual’s broken hip was being managed by the medicine; the resident was later transferred to the hospital for pain management.
Miletree Center in Spencer WV
The for-profit, corporate-owned Miletree Center located in Spencer, West Virginia scored a Below Average rating for its overall quality of care. One of the primary areas of concern was with patients’ physical and mental health; as many as 10.9% of high-risk patients who stay in the facility over the long term develop pressure ulcers, also known as bedsores. Of the residents in the facility, 23.7% experience a worsening ability to move independently—a rate that exceeds both the national average of 18.5% and West Virginia’s statewide average of 22.3%. Approximately 5% of the individuals at Miletree Center who needed and would have benefitted from a pneumonia vaccination did not receive one, and almost half (43.5%) of residents who are at otherwise low risk experience eventual loss of control over their bowels and/or bladder.
Miletree Center has received 21 health citations stemming from a number of issues. One resident’s spouse expressed concern that the patient had not been showered, and further review indicated that the resident had received only three showers in a 31-day period. In another case, a resident’s medical power of attorney was not informed that the patient had suffered a fall in the facility, and documented records of previous falls in other individuals were also found to be lacking. Multiple residents had experienced falls that were not documented in between assessments, and other documentation such as the types of medications being taken by residents were sometimes coded incorrectly, leading to confusion about what medicine an individual needed.
Stonerise Parkersburg
A for-profit limited liability company called Parkersburg Acquisition LLC owns Stonerise Parkersburg, a 164-bed West Virginian nursing home that achieved a below average score on its most recent inspection for overall quality. In fact, the facility has been labeled with a red flag after abuse or neglect allegations were confirmed at the location. While Stonerise offers above average resident interaction at 1.25 hours per day per individual when it comes to LPNs, patients only see around 30 minutes of time with a registered nurse each day, undercutting the nationwide average by 15 minutes. The number of residents in the facility also exceeds the national average by approximately 13%.
In terms of healthcare inspections for residents at Stonerise in Parkersburg, the facility has seen nine citations for a variety of issues. Most recently, a 2019 report indicated that a resident fell from a hoyer lift (used to lift an individual out of bed or from a sitting or lying position) and experienced multiple fractures that led to hospitalization and eventually death. The hoyer lift in this incident was not properly positioned, and staff failed to follow the standard protocol for slowly rolling the lift away from the bed. An additional citation for this incident arose from the facility’s failure to report an allegation of neglect related to the hoyer lift event immediately; Stonerise waited five days before reporting the incident, and the details of the report claimed that the resident slid out of a chair as an “unusual occurrence.”
Pleasant Valley Nursing and Rehabilitation Center – Point Pleasant, WV
The 100-bed facility Pleasant Valley Nursing, located in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, is owned by a for-profit corporation and saw a two-star rating out of five from Medicare based upon the quality of care it provides to its residents, its staffing ratios, and the health inspection scores it receives. Residents can expect no more than three minutes per day with a physical therapy staff, which is on par for the West Virginia average but still undershoots the national average of five minutes. Registered nurses are only assisting residents for 28 minutes per day, compared to the national average of 45 minutes per resident per day.
A total of 17 citations have been brought against Pleasant Valley Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center, more than double the national average of 8.1 and exceeding even West Virginia’s higher than average 11.5. Two residents were recorded as experiencing treatment deemed to violate their rights to a dignified existence. One resident was left in a hallway covered only in a bath blanket that exposed her upper chest area, and another resident saw their room being used as storage for the facility—including ten wheelchairs, an oxygen tank, a mechanical lift, and a weight scale all being stored in the individual’s living quarter. There was just enough room to enter and exit the room and reach the bathroom. Another incident described staff failing to inform a patient’s doctor of higher than acceptable blood sugar levels. The facility also contained holes in walls, stained and cracked floors and siding, and water that is too cold for bathing being used for showers.
Fairmont Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center
Fairmont, West Virginia is home to its namesake Fairmont Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center, which scored Below Average on Medicare’s most recent assessment, not only overall, but also in the areas of health inspections and staffing. The for-profit corporation that manages Fairmont supplies 120 certified beds in the facility, which means that residents are limited to only 25 minutes of face-to-face time with a registered nurse each day (compared to the West Virginia statewide average of 44 minutes). The average number of residents per day is 105, which indicates that the facility is nearly at capacity most of the time.
Fairmont’s 2020 health inspection indicated some deficiencies that coincide with the historical trends of the facility, where there has been 12 citations. One resident complained that after a leg amputation, he requested three showers per week, and the staff failed to fulfill this request despite multiple requests. Documentation has proven to arise as problematic in Fairmont’s case, such as when a resident’s records indicated that the resident was discharged to an acute hospital when in actually the individual had been discharged home with their spouse. Multiple residents were documented with pressure ulcers in frequently affected areas such as the tailbone and ankles.
Minnie Hamilton Health Care
The overall Below Average two out of five rating secured by Minnie Hamilton Health Care in Grantsville, West Virginia was rated on its quality of resident care and its health inspections. It does not currently have staffing information available; this can be caused by failure to submit staffing data or a high number of days where there is not a registered nurse on site. The location features only 24 beds, but the rate of hospitalization per 1000 days of resident stays sits at 8.57—more than five times the national average of 1.69. This indicates that residents are frequently sent to the hospital; even outpatient emergency visits per 1000 days occur at a rate of 1.33, greater than the national average of 0.83.
Nine health inspection citations have occurred at the facility; according to its latest report, one resident’s dietary needs were not met because the staff failed to document new requirements in her diet. Another resident was not assessed for fall risk upon admission into the facility and suffered a fall two days later that was later revealed as expected when the individual’s fall risk was deemed high. Inspections of the facility itself indicated that water temperatures in excess of 120 degrees Fahrenheit were observed in the hand sinks to which residents had access; staff confirmed that no testing is done of water temperature at the point of contact in the facility’s hand sinks.
Willows Center in Parkersburg
Parkersburg, West Virginia is home to more than one nursing home that has been rated below average, with Willows Center coming in at a two out of five possible for its overall score and the minimum one out of five allowable in quality of resident care. 723 Summers Street Operations LLC, a for-profit partnership, administers 97 beds in the facility, and of the residents in these beds who are high risk, 14.7% develop preventable bedsores. This is nearly double the national rate of 7.4%, with a further 5.1% of residents suffering a major injury as a result of a fall. As many as 18.6% of individuals living in Willows Center were described as having lost “too much weight”—a three-fold increase over the national average of 5.9%.
The previous health inspection in 2019 noted that eight separate rooms were in disrepair, with cracked floor tiles, loose sealant, missing caulk, and uneven flooring. Two other residents were receiving oxygen therapy without a physician’s order, and multiple doses of medication in the facility’s storage were open but unlabeled for dated use. These medications did not include names or open dates and included not only medicine but also vaccinations.
Summersville Regional Medical Center
The Summersville Regional Medical Center can be found in Summersville, West Virginia and hosts 52 certified beds in a facility owned and operated by West Virginia Health Care Cooperative Inc. This location has been cited for confirmed cases of abuse or neglect and bears the red flag given by Medicare. Of long-term residents, 21.6% saw a decrease in their ability to move independently, and 10.6% of high-risk residents developed pressure sores, with 26.9% of otherwise low-risk patients who eventually lose control of their bladder and bowel functions.
One of the most recent citations indicates that a resident was documented as needing two staff members to assist in moving the individual. One nursing assistant attempted the process alone and lost balance, resulting in a fall that fractured the resident’s femur. Another citation was issued for the facility failing to report the incident to the appropriate state authorities in a timely manner; Summersville waited until the resident returned from the hospital instead of filing the report immediately.
Salem Center
In Salem, West Virginia, the Salem Center has also been documented with confirmed cases of abuse and neglect and received Medicare’s red flag warning. A for-profit nursing home maintaining 112 beds, Salem Center sees more than 30% of its residents degrade in their ability to move on their own, and 27.8% of residents increasingly need assistance with day-to-day activities. On average, 11.4% of residents at Salem Center develop pressure sores when at high risk, and 2.7% develop urinary tract infections. An additional 2.7% sustain serious injuries as a result of a fall.
At 31 health inspection citations, Salem Center exceeds the national average by nearly four times. One resident experienced theft of personal property, including a wallet and cash, that the facility failed to investigate. The nursing home also did not prevent or report a resident to resident altercation that resulted in a black eye; the same resident was later allowed to continue to wander the facility without supervision, including after making aggressive remarks such as wanting to shoot people.
Take Action
If you or a loved one were abused or neglected inside W.Va Nursing home, please contact Senior Justice Law Firm by chatting with us on our website or by calling us at 888-375-9998.
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Ratings are based on The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ratings as of the day of this post. CMS is a federal agency within the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that administers the Medicare program that sets quality standards in nursing homes through its survey and certification process. The Nursing Home Compare Web site features a quality rating system that gives each nursing home a rating of between 1 and 5 stars. Nursing homes with 5 stars are considered to have much above average quality and nursing homes with 1 star are considered to have quality much below average.