LITTLE ROCK— All 239 nursing homes in Arkansas are taking part in a national campaign intended to make life better for residents of the facilities, a medical official says.

Claudia Beverly, associate director of the Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, says Arkansas is the only state so far to achieve total participation in the campaign called Advancing Excellence in America’s Nursing Homes.

“It’s unprecedented,” Beverly said.

Nursing homes involved in the campaign set goals such as minimizing painful pressure sores, reducing chronic pain and cutting back on use of restraints on frail or disorderly residents.

Martha Deaver, president of the nonprofit Arkansas Advocates for Nursing Home Residents, says the campaign is a step in the right direction, but Arkansas nursing homes have a long way to go.

The state Office of Long Term Care cited more than 3,500 deficiencies at Arkansas nursing homes last year in such areas as medication errors, poor nutrition, dehydration and pressure sores.

“There cannot be too much focus on these issues,” Deaver said. “You’re talking about the most vulnerable, the sickest and the weakest of our citizens who need skilled nursing care 24 hours a day to survive. When you have deficiencies written on these types of violations, residents suffer.”

A recent federal report shows that Arkansas nursing homes use physical restraints—measures ranging all the way from wrist restraints or wheelchair seatbelts down to bed rails to keep people from falling to the floor—more often than those in any other state.

Such restraints are used on 11 percent of patients in Arkansas, the report said, compared with a national average of 5.1 percent.

The report’s figures show Arkansas does better keeping high-risk pressure sores from developing on nursing-home residents.

Only 11.7 percent of patients in Arkansas had such sores, slightly below the national average of 12 percent. Arkansas is also below the national average for residents experiencing chronic pain, at 3.3 percent compared with 4.4 percent nationwide.

The national campaign’s goals are to get physical-restraint use to 5 percent or less, high-risk pressure sores such as bed sores below 10 percent and chronic pain at 4 percent or less before September.

Nationwide, 6,760 nursing homes, or 43 percent, are participating in the campaign, according to chairwoman Mary Jane Koren.