Focused Care at Linden announced today that the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the federal agency responsible for rating the quality of care provided by the nation’s skilled nursing facilities, awarded the long term care community a 5-star rating for Quality Measures – the category that focuses on direct resident care. Focused Care at Linden earned a 5-star for resident care in 2019 – during the last rating period.

“I know our culture of patient-centered care is driven by commitment and compassion for the seniors we are responsible for,” said Christine Donald, Executive Director of Operations for Focused Care at Linden.  “To achieve the highest rating for quality care following a raging pandemic, an unrelenting winter weather system and a comprehensive vaccination process, fills me with appreciation for my wonderful team members at Focused Care at Linden and their dedication in the most trying and challenging time of our century.

According to the CMS website, the agency created the Five-Star Quality Rating System to help consumers, their families, and caregivers compare nursing homes more easily.

Skilled nursing care facilities are rated by CMS in three categories: Health Inspections, Staffing and Quality Measures.  Facilities also receive an overall rating based on scores from the three categories. Nursing homes are awarded stars as high as five, which are considered to have above average quality, and much like a traditional grading system, can receive a 4, 3 and 2 star, as well as one star, the latter considered to have quality much below average.

Focused Care at Linden’s overall rating is 4-Star – a testament to Focused Care team members investing in the care of patients and believing in the Focused Care mission to change the lives of those they care for in a meaningful way.

“We have, as a world, a country and a state been under tremendous stress throughout this global health crisis and those advanced in years with reduced immune systems suffered the hardest from COVID-19. That said, we did not falter in our care and attention while staying on high alert for months,” said Donald.  “Our Linden community can be proud we have all pulled together through this while our standards of care remained just as high as before this health scourge changed our way of life.  As the cloud lifts, we remain vigilant but perhaps a little more joyous these days as we continue to care for our residents.”

Read on the Cass County Citizens Journal-Sun here.