If you’re looking for a nursing home to care for an aging relative, the federal Medicare program has released a list of poorly performing homes that warrant extra scrutiny. The list of 134 “special focus facilities” across the country is the latest addition to the government’s Nursing Home Compare service, which includes quality performance scores, staffing information and a three-year history of each home’s inspection reports.

Special focus facilities are nursing homes that have a history of poor performance or repeated violations of state and federal health and safety rules. The idea is to point out homes that consistently provide poor quality of care yet periodically institute improvements. That way, they pass one survey, only to fail the next for many of the same problems as before.

The full list can be found at www.cms.hhs.gov/CertificationandComplianc/12_NHs.asp. Area sites include Ottawa Retirement Village and Medicalodge of Leavenworth.