Leahi Hospital has been taken off the list of the nation's poorest performing nursing homes by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services after enacting measures to correct documentation deficiencies for which it had been cited.

The hospital instead has been placed on a list of facilities showing improvement since being named in November as one of the country's 54 underperforming nursing homes. The information is developed from periodic surveys at the facilities.

CMS is releasing the information in the hope that improved disclosure will help people make better decisions about choosing nursing homes and lead to improvements at facilities. Facilities that make the list have failed to improve significantly after being given an opportunity to do so, according to CMS.

The 190-bed facility is run by Hawaii Health Systems Corp., a quasi-public organization that oversees rural and small hospitals around the state. Spokesman Miles Takaaze said the corporation welcomed being removed from the list. He said the administrators had come up with an improvement plan and worked to execute the program.

If a facility remains among the poorest performers for too long, it risks being cut off from Medicare and Medicaid payments. "We take all these things seriously," Takaaze said.

CMS had cited Leahi for problems with documentation such as failing to record what therapeutic services a patient had received. Takaaze said Leahi is looking forward to continuing its improvements and graduating to the CMS list of facilities that have sustained the progress.

Leahi "remains committed to improvements in future surveys," he said.

Reach Greg Wiles at gwiles@honoluluadvertiser.com.