Providence News

|   Five Star Quality You Can Trust at Providence Life Services

Providence Life Services (PLS) is proud of its history of providing high quality care and services to those seniors who receive care from us. Since 1995, PLS has received the highest accreditation rating given by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations for our skilled nursing facilities and home care services. The Joint Commission surveys and accredits over 16,000 healthcare systems and organizations in the United States and is the nationwide symbol for healthcare quality. In addition to various external accreditation activities, PLS consistently receives excellent internal scores from those individuals who use our services. Additionally, our internal scores rank higher than scores as reported in a recent national survey for comparable categories.

Since January 2008, 91% of those patients and residents completing our patient satisfaction surveys responded they would recommend Providence Life Services to others. During that same time period, 94% of respondents rated the care and services provided by Providence staff as "Good" or "Excellent". Compared to a 2007 national survey of over 300,000 consumers in 4,100 nursing homes only 82% of respondents stated they would recommend their provider to others, with an identical 82% of respondents rating their care as "Good" or "Excellent". We are very proud of our high ratings, especially when compared to the national scoring results.

Recently however, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) developed and implemented a quality rating service for nursing facilities. This rating system, called The Five-Star Quality Rating System, was developed and implemented without any input or support from the providers. Suffice it to say, there are many flaws in this system. Various professional associations in which PLS staff is very active released the following statements:

"The CMS five star rating system is a great idea prematurely implemented. We support a consumer-friendly nursing home rating system based on reliable quality information that the public can understand. But what is being launched tomorrow is poorly planned, prematurely implemented and ham-handedly rolled out."

American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging
press release dated January 15, 2009.


"The Health Care Council of Illinois believes that a five star rating system for nursing homes could have been an excellent tool for consumers, if it had been constructed properly. However the system launched today by CMS falls short in helping the public identify the best facilities'."

Health Care Council of Illinois
press release December 18, 2008 (download pdf).

Additionally, a total of 31 state attorneys general sent a letter to Kathleen Sibelius, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services calling for the suspension and revision of the Five-Star Quality Rating System.

"The fact that these thirty-one state leaders, who are dedicated to protecting consumers, came together to highlight weaknesses of the current Five-Star system speaks volumes about the weaknesses in a system that was developed to aid consumers."

Bruce Yarwood, President & CEO, American Health Care Association.

Providence Life Services leadership applauds the effort by CMS for desiring to develop a rating system. However, the present system is highly flawed and creates a false impression of the level of quality performance by many outstanding nursing facilities.


Tinley Park, IL December 2009