Information & Ratings on Mark Twain Manor (Violations)

Your loved one's care is extremely important to you and your family, especially when they are no longer able to care for themselves. In that event, you will often entrust their care to a skilled nursing facility to provide them with the intensive care that they need. However, sometimes nursing homes do not do the job for which they are legally responsible and for which they are being paid. Sometimes, that causes injury and harm to your loved one. When that happens, you can hire an attorney to represent your interests, including filing a claim for financial compensation against the nursing home.

Mark Twain Manor is a medium-sized facility with 120 certified beds. It participates in both the Medicare and Medicaid programs. It provides long-stay services to residents of Bridgeton, MO and the Greater Saint Louis area. It has for-profit ownership and is located at:

11988 Mark Twain Ln 
Bridgeton, MO 63044
(314) 291-8240
URL: Mark Twain Manor

The federal government assumed an even more critical role as one of the regulators of nursing homes approximately 30 years ago. This means that the federal government conducts in-person inspections with the power to assess fines and deny reimbursements for the Medicare program. The state also has its own role as regulator of nursing homes and can also levy fines. In a worst case scenario, the State of Missouri can take away a nursing home's license. In any event, the findings from both governments are available online so you can get a sense of the quality of care at the nursing home where your loved on resides. 

In June 2017, the facility received a Notice of Noncompliance from the State of Missouri. All of these violations were Class II violations, meaning they were one level below the most serious type of issue. When transferring two residents, staff failed to properly secure them by applying the leg straps. Additionally, the staff failed to secure the wound cart and left it accessible to residents and unattended. Finally, the staff did not wash their hands between clean and dirty tasks, as required by rules. 

Although the care seems to have improved somewhat at Mark Twain Manor in recent years, the facility still maintains a one-star rating. This is the lowest rating that a nursing home can receive from Medicare and results from the one-star rating that the facility received in the area of health inspections. Usually, when a nursing home has had an adverse event such as a fine or a payment denial from Medicare in the past several years, the home will earn a one-star rating. Here, the facility had a payment denial from Medicare in November 2016 which is still impacting the ratings.

In the November 2016 inspection report, this nursing home received 13 health citations, which is practically double the national average. There were several citations relating to quality of care and cleanliness of the facility. Moreover, there were deficiencies with regard to activities to halt the spread of infections. Staff were not taking the proper measures to keep residents clean and groomed.

While the recent inspection reports have shown improvement, there was a complaint investigation in February 2018 which resulted in a citation for the facility. In this case, there was actual harm to the resident. In this case, the home did not properly diagnose and treat a clot in the resident's leg that became gangrenous. The home delayed in sending the resident to the hospital and only did so after the leg was without a pulse for several hours. The hospital noted that the nursing home unduly delayed in obtaining medical care for the resident in light of the poor condition of their leg. The facility should have called 911 sooner since the leg was without oxygen for more than 24 hours. 

While Mark Twain Manor generally receives good ratings in the area of quality of care metrics, the facility is significantly worse than the national average in terms of hospitalizations of residents. The national average for a nursing home is 1.7 hospital stays for every 1,000 resident days. This facility averages 2.66 hospitalizations for every 1,000 resident days. Medicare has a new program that enables it to reward nursing homes that have a low hospitalization rate while, at the same time, punishing those who have a worse than average rate. In this case, Mark Twain Manor is in a position to have its Medicare reimbursements docked by up to two percent. Additionally, nearly a third of residents of this facility need help with daily activities, although this could be a reflection of the overall health of patients that are residing at this facility as opposed to deficiencies in the quality of care.

Call the attorneys at the Nursing Home Law Center today at (800) 726-9565. Or you can reach out to us online to chat. We stand at the ready to help your loved one and your family and to put out many years of experience in dealing with nursing homes such as these to work for you. Your consultation with us is always free and you would retain our services on a contingency basis, meaning we are only paid if you receive financial compensation. 

Sources:

• February 21, 2017
• Inspection Report
• Inspection Report