The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services published a list of 54 nursing homes that nationally perform poor services. In the list were found Palms Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Lauderdale Lakes, Apollo Health & Rehab Center in St. Petersburg and Key West Convalescent Center in Key West.

The list includes nursing homes classified as “special focus facilities” and had a history of serious quality problems. They have been included in a special program to enhance their service quality. In this program, Palms Rehabilitation and Nursing Center has been for 13 months, The Key West Convalescent Center for 34 months and Apollo Health & Rehab Center for 9 months. There wasn’t any specification for the motives that these facilities were put on the list.

The special focus program implies that the state agency runs twice the number of standard surveys and applies progressive enforcement until the facility improves significantly in matters of its quality service. When it reaches a certain quality standard the facility is no longer called a “special focus” and enters in the normal surveying policy. If it doesn’t reach quality standards in due time, the facility is granted with additional time as it promises future developments, but in case of failure of its due promise, the facility is terminated from Medicare and/or Medicaid.

The program leads in case of 50 percent of surveyed nursing homes to significantly improvement of their quality service in a period of 24 to 30 months. About 16 percent of them are terminated from Medicare and Medicaid.