From Ohio Department of Aging
The Wood County Senior Center will host one of seven statewide listening sessions of the Ohio Governor’s Nursing Home Quality and Accountability Task Force.
Nursing home residents and their loved ones are encouraged to attend to share their experiences as the task force works toward a goal of making excellence the expectation in all of Ohio’s more than 960 nursing homes. Members of the public are also welcome to attend any of the listening sessions.
The task force will listen to public comments from 2 to 4 p.m. March 28 at the senior center, 140 S. Grove St., Bowling Green.
Gov. Mike DeWine established the task force via an executive order to study issues surrounding quality of life and quality of care in Ohio’s nursing homes. Ohio ranked 39th in the most recent Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services overall Quality Star Ratings, which scores all Medicare/Medicaid-funded nursing facilities between 1 (much below average) and 5 (much above average) stars on a variety of categories, including overall quality. Ohio’s average overall nursing home quality currently ranks in the bottom quartile of all states.
Many of the state’s nursing facilities are inconsistent in their compliance with standards of care, being forced to correct the same deficiencies repeatedly.
The other locations and dates for listening sessions include:
- Youngstown, March 7, 1-3 p.m., Youngstown State University, Kilcawley Center (Chestnut Room), 117 University Plaza,
- Cincinnati, March 16, 1-3 p.m., University of Cincinnati, Tangeman University Center, Room 400, 2701 Bearcat Way
- Dayton, March 21, 10 a.m. to noon, Sinclair Community College, Charity E. Earley Auditorium, 444 W. Third St.
- Columbus, March 24, 1-3 p.m., Columbus State Community College, The Event Center at Mitchell Hall
- Nelsonville, April 6, 10 a.m. to noon, The Lodge at Hocking College, 15770 OH-691
- Cleveland, April 13, 1-3 p.m., The Conference Center at Benjamin Rose Institute on Aging, 11890 Fairhill Road
Register here to attend any of the listening sessions.
In addition to the community listening sessions listed, the task force will hold regular meetings to discuss public input and formulate recommendations. Ohio Department of Aging Director Ursel J. McElroy is chairperson of the task force and Ohio Department of Health Director Bruce Vanderhoff is vice chair. View all task force members and the full schedule of meetings at the task force website.
