State Auditor talks about nursing home inspections during Mason City stop

MASON CITY — State Auditor Rob Sand was in Mason City today holding a town hall meeting in Central Park, two days after releasing an analysis showing nursing home inspections were occurring on average every 17 months, four months behind the federal standard.

The director of the Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing has countered Sand’s findings, saying the report is “inaccurate” and “incomplete” because the federal data Sand relied on did not provide information of all the inspections conducted prior to June 1st because of the lag time in completing the paperwork.

Sand tells NorthIowaNow.com News that he stands by his department’s findings. “Just because audits sting doesn’t mean they are inaccurate. We went through all the publicly available federal data that had just been updated in June, and we stand by our work. Now, DIAL says you haven’t looked at the most recent data. Well, when the most recent data becomes available, we’ll be able to talk about it.”

Sand’s report comes after Republican lawmakers said the department’s staffing was sufficient and decided this spring to not fund more inspectors.  “I think what they’re trying to get at is ‘we’re doing better’ — great. One reason we do audits is to motivate people to do better. That doesn’t mean that our audit is inaccurate. It means that it stung.”

Sand says the state should have priorities in making sure elderly and vulnerable residents’ level of care is meeting the federal standards. “Everybody in Iowa has read a lot of stories about nursing home residents dying, wandering off, lying in pools of their own blood, lying in beds with bed sores, and this kind of stuff has been horrific. We want to see a system where there are checks and balances, where nursing homes understand that they’ve got to take good care of Iowans or that there will be problems for them too. It’s the same reason that we want cops out walking the street, helps us all do what we should be doing anyway.”

Recent federal data shows staffing at Iowa’s nursing homes remains an issue, with Sand’s review showing 54% of nurses who had worked in a nursing home quit the facility within the past 12 months.