By Matt Sepic, KWMU
St. Louis, MO – Missouri's nursing home industry says care at many facilities is getting better.
The non-profit health care consulting firm Primaris has been working with nursing homes in the state that accept Medicare and Medicaid patients.
The federal government says those homes have to meet certain quality guidelines.
Primaris spokeswoman Catherine Gill says the facilities her group is working with made the biggest strides, according to a federal report.
"What we're talking about is helping facilities move beyond the basics, move beyond the minimums of care, and to really become high quality settings," Gill said.
But Jo Anne Morrow with the Missouri Coalition for Quality Care, a nursing home watchdog group, says quality of care data is a bit tough to get a handle on.
"Staffing has been cut in all of the state agencies that are responsible for monitoring these conditions," Morrow said. "There's been such a cut in staffing, that they're not able to keep up with everything."
Morrow says she's hasn't seen the new numbers, but her organization still receives a steady stream of complaints about problems in Missouri nursing homes.