DES MOINES, Iowa — State Auditor Rob Sand released findings from a study that showed that Iowa is “failing to meet the federal mandate for inspections for nursing homes that are certified to accept Medicaid or Medicare.”
Sand, in a Zoom presentation on Monday, cited that in Iowa nursing home inspections occur an average of every 17.1 months, while the federal mandate for inspection is every 12.9 months. Sand got the data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
The report also stated Iowa ranked 46th nationally for the amount of licensed nursing staff per resident. Iowa also has nearly 11 out of 20 nurses who worked at a certified nursing home a year ago, who are now no longer employed at those nursing homes.
“Iowa has a workforce crisis and that, we’ve seen the legislature putting a lot of effort in, the governor, putting a lot of effort into other things like culture wars, as opposed to bringing more people into the state of Iowa to actually do the work that one needs to have done,” said Sand.