Nursing home staffing headed for more scrutiny

When a government watchdog decides it wants to investigate you, it’s usually not going to be content with a “No fire here, folks!” conclusion. Nobody knows that better than nursing home operators.

And so we unfold the latest Office of Inspector General investigationinto skilled nursing staff levels, which came out Monday.

In brief, nearly 1,000 operators (7%) were found to have had more than 30 days without the required amounts of nurse staffing in 2018. Also, 900 had 16 to 29 days that weren’t up to snuff. Those are pre-pandemic days, of course. But still not too early to set the stage for a little “You always were slack” blame-gaming over coronavirus carnage, if we know how this game works. And we all do.