NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — It's something so many of us will have to do at some point: find a nursing home for an elderly parent or other loved one.
It's a difficult decision.
And when that time comes, you want to make sure that you have all of the information you need to make an informed decision.
But NewsChannel 5 Investigates has discovered that has gotten a whole lot tougher.
You can no longer just jump on your computer and get information directly from the state of Tennessee and the regulators who inspect and investigate nursing homes here. And we found that means if you're relying only on the state's website when you're looking at potential nursing homes, you're missing out on some very important information.
Olivia Kritsch told NewsChannel5 Investigates, "My dad was 60 years old when he passed."
Her father, Jay Kritsch, died in February at the Waters of Springfield nursing home after he fell in his bathroom and hit his head. And despite what the facility told 911 dispatchers, that employees had performed CPR on the unconscious man, state investigators later found the nursing home in fact had not.
The Waters of Springfield was fined more than $26,000 and not allowed to accept any new patients until it came up with a corrective action plan.
Now for years, anyone could go online to the state of Tennessee's website and look up any nursing home and see investigation and inspection reports and discover what was going on in these homes. It was a great tool and a fast, easy, and free way to make informed choices.
But if you go to the state's website now, all of those investigation and inspection reports are gone.
In fact, the only thing you'll find on the Waters of Springfield is a $250 fine issued by the state back in 2020.
There's nothing here whatsoever about the problems found at the nursing home after Jay Kritsch's death earlier this year.
"Why wouldn't you want people to be aware of what is going on?" Olivia Kritsch wondered, adding, "I want people to know every detail of what happened with my dad's case."
The state's Health Facilities Commission now oversees inspections of nursing homes in Tennessee. And Executive Director Logan Grant who turned down our requests for an interview told us in an email that he "made the decision" to remove the reports, insisting they contain Personal Health Information and posting it would violate HPPA.
Grant went on to say, "We do not have the resources to redact every [report]."
But those reports are online if you know where to look.
Ruth Talbot oversees the Nursing Home Inspect site run by ProPublica, the investigative journalism non-profit. Here, you can look up any nursing home in the country and find staffing levels, the number of residents, ownership information and all of the investigation and inspection reports.
"I think at ProPublica, we really deeply believe that the more information, the better people can make really well-informed decisions," Talbot shared.
If you look up the Waters of Springfield on the ProPublica site, you'll see the investigation into Jay Kritsch's death plus four more reports on incidents in the last five years where the nursing home was written up for multiple violations including in 2023 where inspectors found patients in danger and the nursing home was fined nearly $10,000.
"These reports are really telling sometimes about the quality of care people are receiving," Talbot said.
But remember the state says it took down these same reports that come from the federal government because supposedly there's too much personal information in them that it would take too much time to remove.
So we asked Talbot, "How much time do you have to take redacting that information so you can post these reports?"
"We do not redact any information," she said, explaining, "When the reports come to us, they already have resident names and very specific medications removed so that we're not exposing anyone's private data."
That's right, the federal government takes out all personal and identifying information before it even releases these reports.
So what are you really missing now from Tennessee's website? It turns out, a lot.
On Tennessee's website when you look up Signature Health of Portland Rehab and Wellness, it shows "no disciplinary actions" while the same nursing home on ProPublica's Nursing Home tracker shows the facility was cited four times in the last two years for putting patients in danger and fines totaling more than $170,000.
On the state's site, the Cedar Creek nursing home in Mt. Juliet shows two incidents, one in 2022 and one in 2024 and a $1,000 fine. But, according to ProPublica's tracker, there are five recent reports, a total of 33 violations or deficiencies, and a $211,000 fine.
And if you look up McKendree Village in Hermitage, Tennessee's website makes no mention of the whopping $252,000fine issued by federal regulators after a 2023 investigation found 26 violations.
Deborah Fisher's reaction?
"That is not good."
Fisher is the Executive Director of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, a watchdog group that works to ensure the public has access to public information, and we asked her, "Is this transparency?"
"No, it's not transparency. It's kind of the opposite of transparency," she replied.
Fisher called Tennessee's version of the search tools "almost misleading" and wondered who the state really is trying to protect.
We told her that the state insisted that removing the reports was "to protect the privacy of patients."
"Well, I wonder who asked them to do that. Did any patients ask them to do that? Did any members of families ask them to do that? Or did nursing homes asked them to do that?" Fisher pondered aloud.
Olivia Kritsch, whose father died at the Waters of Springfield, also questioned why the reports were taken down.
"Why are we doing these investigations if we don't want the communities to be aware of them?"
Kritsch said when something goes wrong at a nursing home, that information really needs to be on Tennessee's website.
"It should be readily available," Kritsch suggested.
The Health Facilities Commission told NewsChannel5 Investigates that if someone wants to see investigative or inspection reports, all they have to do is file a public records request. But it's not that simple. Here's the thing about those kinds of requests, you can't just say, "Tell me about this nursing home." You have to know exactly what to ask for and be very specific. Most people don't know how to do that. Then, after you file your request, it can take weeks and cost a lot of money.
Olivia Kritsch asked for the records on just on her father's case. It took more than a month for her to get them and the state charged her $45. Imagine then if you're looking at several different nursing homes for a loved one and you need to make a decision now. It's going to be really tough.
And here is a link to ProPublica's Nursing Home Inspect tool
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