March 2012
An analysis of federal data on the country’s nursing homes done by USA Today reveals an overall improvement in the level of care, though there remains a large number of low-rated nursing homes that haven’t improved since 2008 when the government began ranking the quality of care. The number of four-and five-star rated homes rose to 43 percent from 38 percent while the percentage of one-and two-star homes fell to 35 percent from 40 percent in 2009. Among the 15,7000 homes analyzed by USA Today, 564 received one star in each cf the past three years and 48 had a five-star rating during each reporting period.
