Pennsylvania ranked 20th in the nation for complaints per nursing home last year, according to a new study that analyzed federal data for all 50 states.

The report by The Senior List found nursing homes in Pennsylvania averaged 8.42 deficiency complaints per facility last year. Washington state topped the list with 18.1 complaints per facility. New Hampshire fared the best, with 2.59 deficiencies per facility.

West Virginia ranked 15th (9.38 deficiencies). Ohio was 21st (8.37).

Deficiencies at Pennsylvania nursing homes resulted in $1.4 million in fines, the report found. Nationally, 15,000 nursing homes had 121,000 deficiencies (eight per facility) and paid a total of $34 million in fines, the Senior List reported.

When researchers subtracted administrative violations and concentrated solely on substandard care violations, Pennsylvania’s nursing homes fared better, ranking 33rd in the nation for such violations.

The new rankings follow the release this week of a report on nursing home quality by U.S. Sens. Bob Casey, D-Scranton, and Pat Toomey, R-Lehigh Valley. The report disclosed a previously unpublished list of 400 of the nation’s worst ranked nursing homes, including 16 across Pennsylvania. Five in Western Pennsylvania — four in Westmoreland County and one in Allegheny County — are either under federal oversight for being among the nation’s most-troubled nursing homes or on a waiting list for such oversight, their report revealed.

The Senior List, a website that reviews products and services for older Americans, said tracking nursing home quality has taken on a new urgency as the number of Americans residing in such facilities surged by more than 200-fold since the 1960s and more than doubled over the past 20 years.

And the U.S. population continues to get older, the report noted.

“Whether you’re considering nursing care for yourself in your later years or are weighing the options for a parent or other loved one, quality of care is always the single biggest concern,” the report stated. “None of us want to send our parents or grandparents (or ourselves) to a nursing home where the level of care afforded to residents is substandard or even dangerous.”

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