State Ag Officials Look To Revoke Pest Company License

State agriculture officials are working to pull the license of a pest control company that treats more than 100 healthcare facilities in Georgia.

At issue is how the company, Biotech Systems of Georgia, applied the pesticide Termindor, says Jim Harron with the State Agriculture department:

"It's not a question of training in the case of Termidor, this material should not have been used indoors--period."

It's only an outdoor product, but Harron’s says his office found it in patient rooms and food areas in all eight of the first nursing homes tested in May.

Since then, officials found discrepancies in records the company sent to the state for review.

Now, with the help of state health care officials, Harron says work is being done to examine other nursing homes handled by Biotech:

"We'll work with the nursing homes in getting them proper cleanup procedures, and getting them advice on how they can clean them up."

Harron says the Georgia Agriculture Department is working towill revoke the company’s license.

Federal survey rates Georgia nursing homes 2nd worst

Georgia gets poor marks for its nursing home system. According to a just-released federal quality ratings database, the state is second-worst in the nation. Of the 358 nursing homes in Georgia, 32-percent earned the lowest one-star rating, on a scale up to a best five-stars. Only Louisiana had a higher percentage of nursing homes with one-star grades--39 percent.

The database put together by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services evaluated three key areas: Health inspections, quality measures and staffing.

State Senator Rene Unterman is not surprised by Georgia’s low rating. As vice-chair of the Senate’s Health and Human Services Committee, she’s toured the state and seen the problems firsthand. The Republican from Buford says given Georgia’s two-billion dollar deficit, prospects for quick improvements are slim.

"I would say in these economic times not very good. We also have an aging population...we have the baby boomers coming on. The demands on the infrastructure are going to be tremendous. And the state of Georgia is going to have to step up to the plate and answer those demands."

Unterman says a big problem with privately-run nursing homes is the age of buildings and facilities.

Because of that, her focus has been trying to pour money into home-based care and community programs.

The survey database can be accessed by going to medicare.gov.

Nursing home in Augusta losing Medicare and Medicaid contracts

The federal government has ended its relationship with a nursing home in Augusta, effectively shutting it down.

Officials say The Place at Augusta neglected residents there.

The federal government last year had named the nursing home as one of the worst in the country, and will now terminate Medicare and Medicaid payments to it, effective Saturday.

Three of nation's worst nursing homes are in Georgia

The federal government has put out its list of America’s worst nursing homes. Three are in Georgia. They are - Laurel Baye Healthcare of Lake Lanier, in Buford; The Place at Augusta, in Augusta; and Shoreham at Marietta, in Marietta. The list is published by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Nursing home residents need new homes

Two nursing homes will lose Medicare funding in 30 days, and many families are worried their loved ones will have no place to go.

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services has pulled funding from two nursing homes owned by Rome-based Forum Healthcare group.

It said it had determined that patients at the facilities were in - quote – “immediate jeopardy.”

According to the Rome News Tribune, about half the patients in the two homes are on Medicare. This means close to a hundred patients will either have to move or pay for their care out-of-pocket.

Rome has just five other nursing homes. Only two, according to the newspaper account, have room for more than a couple of additional patients

Forum Healthcare officials say they are appealing the decision and hope to avert the crisis.