After the release of Medicare’s Five Star Rating System for nursing homes in the United States, many small town newspapers and TV stations are running stories about their local facilities and the ratings that are provided by the system. Some of the coverage provides a balanced view of a nursing home’s rating while others focus ion the the poorer ratings that have been assigned and in some cases don’t provide any type of context or rebuttal from the nursing home’s owners and operators or even worse, skim the surface of any past or present issues. Some of the opponents of the system within the senior care industry are patting themselves on the back as they see their fears of negative publicity (warranted or not) come to pass. As the broad media continues to look for stories and headlines that sell, you can be certain that you’ll see more negative coverage for sites that have lower ratings that will ultimately hurt those facilities unless the media provides a balanced view of the story. Fair and balanced doesn’t always sell newspapers and television shows…..Here are a few stories that represent different ends of portrayal of the five star system during the past two months:

The Good

http://www.tampabay.com/news/aging/nursinghomes/article969732.ece

http://hometownlife.com/article/20090205/LIFE/902050445/1105/NEWS12

The Bad (Really Mixed)

http://www.wqow.com/Global/story.asp?S=9724259&nav=menu1364_2

The Ugly

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/health/chi-nursing-homes-feb08,0,3842906.story