Five-Star Farce?

In a nursing home without a sprinkler system, it doesn't take long for a cigarette in a trash can to ignite some nearby curtains and then spread to a resident's bed and eventually to the entire room.

But as simulated burn situations demonstrate, when sprinklers are in place, there's much less damage and risk to human life. Tom Lia is with the Fire Sprinkler Advisory Board.

He claims: "Fire protections in nursing homes are very important because those are the people that are least able to move or get themselves out of the room."

That's exactly why some nursing home experts are shocked that the government's brand new five-star rating system does not consider fire safety when ranking nursing homes.

Terry Sullivan with the Health Care Council of Illinois says: "You do want to know how well they are keeping up in protecting their residents and that's not even here."

The five-star rating system is supposed to help you handle one of the most difficult decisions you'll ever face. choosing a nursing home for a loved one. Five stars is much above average, one star is well below average.

The formula for ranking nursing homes includes data on health and staffing comparisons, but does NOT include so-called "life safety code" violations, including fire code violations.

Reporter Larry Yellen asked: "So even if they had seven or eight violations of their life safety code, it would not affect their five star rating?"

Ellen Greif with Medicare answered: "It would not affect their five-star rating because right now, life safety code is not factored in to the calculation." Greif says the life safety information is available on medicare's website, but wasn't considered crucial for consumers. "We felt that the actual hands-on care, and the results of inspections on hands on care as well as staffing would make for a useful tool." 

As a result, there are nursing homes like this one, The Grove at Lincoln Park, which has a five-star rating even though an inspection last December found seven fire-related violations including sprinklers that were not "...maintained in working order."

A spokesman for the Grove declined to go on camera, but in a statement told us, the violations "...do not affect our residents' safety and well being. Those violations were also addressed immediately."

The Arbour Health Care Center also received a five-star rating, even though an inspection last year turned up four fire deficiencies.

The nursing home's attorney, Fran Meehan, says none of the deficiencies impacted on safety, but even she agrees the five-star system is not working for consumers.

She added: "After I spoke to you the other day , I looked at the list of homes in Chicago, and I was really shocked at some of them that got high ratings."

Medicare officials emphasize that a nursing home's rating should be one factor in choosing a nursing home. But critics say it is too often the most important factor.

Attorney Louis Cairo represents the family of Igor Shteyn, a sixty-seven year old man who died last year in a fire at the Hampton Plaza Nursing home.

He says: " What's better than a five-star rating? Nothing! This five-star rating means nothing when it comes to the overall rating and safety of the building."

Medicare officials say there have been other complaints about the ratings system..especially the failure to include data on customer satisfaction.

Greif says: "Is the website perfect? no. Do we have plans to improve it? Yes." .