U.S. News & World Report Releases Best Nursing Homes 2015

- Ratings offer vital data for nearly every nursing home in the United States -

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Mar 05, 2015, 12:01 ET

WASHINGTON, March 5, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ – U.S. News & World Report, publisher of Best Hospitals and Best Children's Hospitals, today released its Best Nursing Homes 2015, highlighting the top nursing homes in every state and nearly 100 major metropolitan areas. The ratings cover almost 16,000 nursing homes nationwide and are freely available.

Now in its seventh year, Best Nursing Homes is designed to help the several million Americans who will spend at least some time in a nursing home in 2015 rehabbing after a hospital stay or as long-term residents. On a given day, 1.4 million people, most of them 65 and older, live in nursing homes.

"Finding the right place for an elderly loved one is a challenge millions of Americans face each year," says Brian Kelly, editor and chief content officer of U.S. News. "We hope our Best Nursing Homes ratings, advice and tools help them navigate this important decision."

Best Nursing Homes provides data and information on care, safety, health inspections, staffing and more for virtually all U.S. nursing homes. A searchable database lets users find highly rated nursing homes by distance as well as by location. Each facility's profile displays health and fire safety violations, performance in important clinical categories and how much time nursing staff spends with residents.

But the ratings are just a starting point. Best Nursing Homes offers advice on questions to ask and red flags to watch for when choosing a home as well as information on the cost of nursing home care.

To create Best Nursing Homes 2015, U.S. News drew on data from Nursing Home Compare, a program run by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the federal agency that sets and enforces standards for nursing homes. U.S. News awarded a "Best Nursing Homes" designation to facilities that earned the agency's highest overall rating of five stars. California has the greatest number of five-star nursing homes, followed by Ohio, Florida, Illinois and Texas.

In the new ratings, the share of nursing homes with an overall rating of five stars decreased to 21.7 percent, down from 24.9 percent last year. The decrease is the result of recent changes implemented by CMS late last month to bolster the federal rating system. Due to the changes, only nursing homes that received an overall rating of 5 stars as of February 19, 2015, will have a 2015 badge displayed on their profile page.

More and bigger changes are promised by the end of 2016. "It looks like families will finally be able to see staff turnover rate, which is such an important number," says Avery Comarow, U.S. News health rankings editor. "It sends a message about how satisfied nurses and other care providers are with their jobs, and the happier they are, the more likely residents will get better care."

About U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report is a digital news and information company that empowers people to make better, more informed decisions about important issues affecting their lives. Focusing on Education, Health, Personal Finance, Travel, Cars and News & Opinion, www.usnews.com provides consumer advice, rankings, news and analysis to serve people making complex decisions throughout all stages of life. More than 25 million people visit www.usnews.com each month for research and guidance. Founded in 1933, U.S. News is headquartered in Washington, D.C.

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SOURCE U.S. News & World Report