Tennessee has removed nursing home inspection and investigation reports from the state website, leaving families with less information when they are deciding where an aging parent or other loved one should receive care.
The change means the state’s online facility listings may show disciplinary actions or older fines while omitting newer reports detailing serious safety violations. NewsChannel 5 Investigates reported that the Tennessee Health Facilities Commission removed the reports and now directs people to file public records requests to obtain them.
A Fatal Case Shows What Families May Miss
The consequences are especially stark in the case of Jay Kritsch, who died in February at the Waters of Springfield nursing home after falling in his bathroom and hitting his head. State investigators found that employees had not performed CPR, despite the facility telling 911 dispatchers that CPR was underway, according to the station’s reporting.
The Waters of Springfield was fined $26,130 and temporarily barred from accepting new residents until it submitted a corrective action plan. Yet the state’s public listing showed only a $250 fine from 2020, leaving no visible record of the findings connected to Kritsch’s death or several other recent investigations…