Union County Nursing Home Ranked As One Of The Worst In NJ

UNION COUNTY, NJ — A nursing home in Union County made the list of the 15 "lowest-rated long-term care facilities" (LTCs) participating in New Jersey's Medicaid program.

The nursing home in question is the Cranford Park Rehabilitation and Health-Care Center in Cranford. It received an overall rating of two stars, according to medicare.gov.

This rating is based on the nursing home's performance on three sources: health inspections, staffing, and quality of resident care measures.

Cranford Park received one star for health inspections and staffing, which is much below the average. However, the facility received five stars for quality of resident care, which is much above the average.

An owner at Cranford Park, as well as Silver Healthcare Center and Wardell Gardens, is also affiliated with three LTCs that received a two-star or lower score in October 2021 and with a total of five LTCs in New Jersey.

In New Jersey, nursing homes typically perform well overall on the U.S. Department of Human Services' Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) inspections. The overall average rating for LTCs in New Jersey is 3.6 stars out of five, which is above the national average of 3.1.

However, according to the government report, the N.J. nursing homes on this most recent list — released last week — consistently receive the lowest possible rating, despite the fact that Medicaid continues to provide substantial funds to these facilities. These LTCs have a longstanding failure to improve the safety and quality of their care.

This exposes Medicaid beneficiaries to unnecessary risks and results in taxpayer funds being used for care that is substantially below average, the report said.

The Medicaid program pays the 15 facilities on this list an average of $103 million annually. In addition to that, beginning in state fiscal year 2020 (July 1, 2019), the Medicaid program, through the Division of Aging Services within the DHS, instituted a quality incentive payment program (QIPP), which provided additional payments to facilities that demonstrated higher quality and performance.

Therefore, the financial stakes are extremely high when it comes to Medicaid, according to state officials.

Other facilities named to the list include:

• Marlton - Care One At Evesham, 870 East Route 70
• Williamstown – Cedar Grove Respiratory and Nursing Center, 1420 S. Black Horse Pike
• Paterson – Complete Care At Fair Lawn Edge, 77 East 43rd Street
• Hope – Forest Manor HCC, 145 State Park Road
• Wayne – Lakeview Rehabilitation and Care Center, 130 Terhune Drive
• East Orange – New Grove Manor, 101 North Grove Street
• Cape May Court House – Oceana Rehabilitation and NC, 502 Route 9 North
• Maple Shade – Palace Rehabilitation and Care Center, 315 West Mill Road
• Riverton – Riverview Estates, 303 Bank Avenue
• Cherry Hill – Silver Healthcare Center, 1416 Brace Road
• Bridgeton – South Jersey Extended Care, 99 Manheim Avenue
• Maple Shade – Sterling Manor, 794 N. Forklanding Road
• Tinton Falls – Wardell Gardens At Tinton Falls, 524 Wardell RoadAndover – Woodland Behavioral and Nursing Center, 99 Mulford Road

To learn about how the CMS ratings are compiled, read more here.

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