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Missouri Debuts Health Care Facilities Web Site

The site will present a range of information on the state's long-term-care facilities.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Gov. Bob Holden said residents of the state can now visit a new Web site dedicated to long-term health care to find information to help them make informed decisions about long-term care facilities, including nursing homes.

The Web site lists a variety of information about health-care facilities, including individual facilities' latest inspections; and whether the facility had any violations and whether it corrected those violations.

"The most important tool available to a person choosing a long-term care facility is information," Holden said, in a statement. "This objective information is especially important as people deal with the often emotional situation of selecting a facility for themselves or a family member."

The inspection report is the first phase of the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services' efforts to create the Web site, which Holden ordered last fall. If consumers can't find a recent inspection listed, officials said, then an inspection most likely took place recently and the report is being finalized or an inspection is scheduled soon. Inspection reports will be added to the Web site as soon as they are available.

In the second phase of the project, actual violations will be listed on the Web site, officials said, and in the third phase, the Web site will include information about consumer complaint s against the facility.

Holden said the Web site is one tool the state is using to address the issue of the quality of long-term care facilities in Missouri. The governor also said that, last December, he outlined a proposal that he and Lt. Gov. Maxwell will pursue in the legislative session to seek tougher standards on long-term-care facilities, including:

- Expanding the ability of the Department of Health and Senior Services to identify and bar people who have abused, neglected or financially exploited seniors from caring for the elderly in health care settings;

- Allowing the department to revoke a nursing facility license for the same reasons they would deny issuing a license in the first place; and

- Enhancing the ability of the state to levy civil penalties against a nursing facility that is out of compliance with state regulations and then to collect those fines that are levied.

Office of Gov. Bob Holden