Tennessean – Lillie Grier had always been sharp, but in her late 80s she started forgetting things.
The dementia progressed quickly, to the point where she didn’t recognize the Clarksville home she had shared since 1973 with her husband, Robert Grier, and where they had raised their two children.
In 2021, Robert Grier made the difficult decision to move his wife of 60 years into the nearby Cloria Oaks Post Acute and Rehabilitation Center in Palmyra just outside of Clarksville.
It was the first time they had been separated.
Grier said he thought his wife would be safe. What he didn’t know was that Cloria Oaks had serious problems.
“Ombudsman programs are saying conditions have really deteriorated since the pandemic, and many nursing homes have taken real steps backwards in the quality of care. They’re saying things are worse now than they’ve ever been.”
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The troubled nursing home was among the worst in the nation for fines and deficiencies when it shuttered this year after the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services pulled payments for failing to follow health and safety codes.
By the time it closed, Cloria Oaks had racked up more than $1.1 million in fines over a three-year period (the highest in the nation at the time) and was among the top five worst nursing homes for serious deficiencies, according to a database of CMS data complied by the nonprofit investigative news organization ProPublica.
It hasn’t been the only nursing home raising concerns since the pandemic.
Tennessee has seen an alarming spike in serious deficiencies in nursing homes, leaving advocates worried that the quality of long-term care has plummeted, not only in the Volunteer State but nationwide.
From 2020 to 2022, the number of citations for the most serious federal deficiencies jumped 145% in Tennessee’s nursing homes, according to a report from the state’s Health Facilities Commission.
“Staffing shortages, high employee turnover, a rise in the use of temporary staffing agencies, a shortage of inspectors and a backlog of complaint investigations have all impacted care … “
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