The backlog of nursing home inspections in Maryland goes back years, with just a fraction of the 222 facilities in the state undergoing the required “annual surveys” over a three-year period.
During a meeting of two legislative committees on Wednesday, Maryland’s Deputy Health Secretary Dr. Nilesh Kalyanaraman told lawmakers that, “there are some facilities that haven’t had an annual survey since 2020.”
State Sen. Clarence Lam said that seemed like a long time for facilities to go without the full formal inspections required by federal law.
“Are those facilities being prioritized for review?” Lam said.
While Kalyanaraman agreed that it did seem like a long time, he said, “It doesn’t mean that we’ve never been to a facility in that time frame, but it does mean that we haven’t done a comprehensive annual survey.”
Data provided by Kalyanaraman showed that in FY22 when Maryland had 225 licensed nursing homes, just 28 had undergone the annual full survey.
In FY24, when there were 222 licensed nursing homes, 47 had been inspected.
Kalyanaraman conceded that those numbers are “far short” of where they needed to be, even considering that federal law allows the state just under 16 months to complete the annual checks.
“Even with the 16-month period, we’re still not at the mark” for completing the inspections, Kalyanaraman told lawmakers.
Along with the inspections, the state is trying to play catch-up on thousands of complaints on conditions at nursing homes.
Kalyanaraman said estimates show it will take two to three years to catch up on both the annual inspections and backlog of investigating complaints.
According to slide showing “intakes” — a term that includes complaints and incidents reported at nursing homes — just under 6,000 are waiting to be investigated. Kalyanaraman said none of the outstanding complaints fall in the “immediate jeopardy” or most serious category.
However, said Kalyanaraman, there is significant progress in trying to address the issues. He pointed to the state’s efforts to accelerate hiring of long-term care nurse surveyors and the General Assembly’s funding to support more positions. Kalyanaraman said there were 59 nurse surveyors hired, and that 16 were currently in training to become certified.
State Sen. Joanne Benson prodded health officials in the meeting to move with urgency.
Benson said she had visited at least one nursing home in her district in Prince George’s County that she described as having “shameful” conditions.
“I’m just trying to figure out what we need to do to bring some peace and quiet to the patients who are in these nursing homes. It’s very—I’m telling you —if you visit, it’s very, very terrible,” Benson said.
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