By Dan Klepal
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Finding out which Tristate nursing homes have the highest percentage of patients suffering from bedsores, delirium or chronic pain is just a point and click away.

USING THE SITE

Information about any nursing home in the nation can be accessed by going to the government's Web site - www.medicare.gov. At the Web site, click on "Nursing Home Compare." That page will allow you to conduct a specific search or check in a geographic area. The page also contains other information about choosing a nursing home. You can also call (800)-MEDICARE for information.

Which nursing homes use physical restraints the most?

Point. Click.

The federal government has compiled a vast amount of information about all 17,000 nursing homes in the country and put the data online Tuesday at www.medicare.gov.

The aim is to help citizens make good choices when selecting a nursing home.

"You can fly into Boston, and in 10 minutes have information about the best hotels and best hot pizza in town," said Tom Scully, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the agency that runs the federal Medicare program. "But you wouldn't have a clue about the best nursing homes in town, and that's just not right."

The data is all self-reported, meaning the nursing homes filled out surveys and provided the information to the government. Interviews with patients, along with data from annual federal inspections, are also available on the site. The government will spend about $350 million per year on the effort.

But the raw data tells only part of the story, said Steve Proctor, spokesman for the Ohio Department on Aging. A nursing home might have a perfectly reasonable explanation for having more patients with bedsores, he said, such as specializing in the treatment of open wounds.

"The information Medicare is promoting is very useful for folks," Mr. Proctor said. "More is always better. But nothing should be substituted with talking with residents, staff members and taking an actual tour. Nothing replaces a personal test."

The Drake Center, for one, would prefer that the raw data not be so raw. Drake ranked above statewide averages in every category in an Ohio Department of Aging report on long-term care released last month. But the facility ranks in the top 10 in two negative categories in the Medicare report: percentage of patients suffering from pain and pressure sores.

Roberta J. Bradford, president and CEO of Drake Center, said the hospital supports the goal of getting information about nursing homes to the masses. But she warns that each facility is unique in its programs and population.

"Unlike traditional nursing homes, Drake Center is an intensive, comprehensive rehabilitation facility which specializes in the treatment of medically complex cases," Ms. Bradford said. "Upon admission, many of our residents show indications of pressure sores or pain. During their stay at Drake, most of these residents showed significant improvement.

"Such explanatory detail is not provided in the report."

The program is an expansion of a pilot program that began this spring in Ohio and five other states. The data relating to Ohio on the Web site has been updated since the spring.

Mr. Scully said something unexpected happened after the pilot program was launched: Nursing homes started trying to get better on their own.

"Seventy-eight percent of the nursing homes responded by improving quality (from the first survey), and over half worked with our consultants to improve quality," Mr. Scully said.

Although the data collected comes from the nursing homes, Mr. Scully said, there is strong incentive for them to tell the truth. In addition to criminal charges that could be filed for fraudulent reporting, misleading reports also work against the nursing homes' bottom line.

"If they report individual patients are healthier to get better results on the survey, they'll get paid less for those patients," Mr. Scully said.

Email dklepal@enquirer.com