Despite tracking detailed quality statistics on its nursing homes for years, the Department of Veterans Affairs has concealed these measures from the public — leaving veterans without critical health information, according to The Boston Globe.
Six things to know:
1. Nearly half of VA nursing homes across the U.S. — 60 — received the agency's lowest ranking (one out of five stars) as of Dec. 31, 2017, according to documents obtained by USA Today and The Boston Globe.
2. After receiving inquiries from the two news organizations the week of June 10 about the concealed information, the VA made some of its ratings public. VA officials said President Donald Trump wanted to release the ratings all along and said former President Barack Obama's administration should have made them public sooner.
3. The worst-performing VA nursing homes included in the ratings were in 32 states. Pennsylvania had five one-star facilities, while Texas and California had four one-star facilities each.
4. VA officials said the nursing home system overall "compares closely" with private nursing homes despite treating patients who are usually sicker. VA spokesperson Curtis Cashour said it was "highly misleading" to compare quality measures, such as pain levels, between the VA and private nursing homes since VA residents tend to have more complex medical conditions.
5. The VA quality tracker found its nursing home residents were five times more likely to say they were in pain than residents in private nursing homes. Mr. Cashour said 60 VA nursing homes have improved their ratings during the last year, and only one had a "meaningful" decline in ratings.
"We are committed to continuous improvement efforts in all of the [VA nursing homes] and demonstrating performance that is as good [as] or better than private-sector facilities," Mr. Cashour said.
6. The agency did not release detailed information about the star ratings, such as infection and injury rates.