Minnesota’s nursing homes see declines in care, even as their numbers fall

A resident of a Two Harbors nursing home received the wrong medication dose 39 times in a row last spring, resulting in emergency hospitalization for seizures the drugs were supposed to prevent. A federal investigation of Waterview Shores found other medication errors and documented the mistakes, resulting in a $203,412 fine for substandard care — one of the largest in state history. Waterview Shores is not alone, though, in its struggles to meet federal nursing home standards. A Minnesota Star Tribune analysis of federal data found that the quality of care has slipped at nursing homes across the state. The number of Minnesota nursing homes with a one-star overall rating, the federal government’s worst grade, rose from 34 in 2019 to 64 last month . Federal fines for neglectful or substandard care have tripled from $2.3 million to $8.2 million in the same timeframe. Advertisement At the same time, the number of nursing homes in the state has fallen from 376 in 2019 to less than 340. With the oldest members of the massive baby boomer generation just turning 80, the timing couldn’t be worse for the decline in both quantity and quality of nursing homes. The generation’s long-term care needs are expected to overwhelm Minnesota’s capacity . The federal government grades on a curve, so there will always be some one-star nursing homes. It also adjusted how it calculates fines and ratings over the past decade. But elder-care advocates said those factors don’t fully explain the erosion of quality grades for Minnesota’s nursing homes.