State launches online tool to compare nursing home quality

A new state tool to research and weigh different nursing communities around Ohio went live Wednesday, Gov. Mike DeWine and Ohio Department of Aging Director Ursel McElroy announced at a news conference (Source: “Statewide dashboard of data to help Ohioans select nursing homes goes live,” Statehouse News Bureau, Feb. 21).

The Nursing Home Quality Navigator is an online database that indexes federal and state data about Ohio’s hundreds of long-term care facilities, McElroy said.

The searchable database includes a profile on each facility that includes its Medicare and Medicaid star-rating, its bed numbers and staff ratio, and flags whether it’s been cited for abuse, among dozens of other data points. It also allows users to weigh locations side-by-side.

McElroy said what's on the dashboard is not new information. It has just now been put together in one place, publicly.