Finding the Right Nursing Home
This guest post is contributed by Kitty Holman, who writes on the topics of Nursing Degrees . She welcomes your comments at her email Id: kitty.holman20@gmail.com.
The New York Times had an article about the process of choosing a nursing home for your loved one. This can be a long and difficult process for people, and there are certain things to remember as you work to find a home that fits your needs.
1. Collect the data. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services collect data annually on nursing homes across the country, assembling information about everything from health inspection rankings to staffing reports on more than 15,000 institutions. A great way to get started in this is by using the Nursing Home Compare tool at Medicare.gov. However, it's important to remember that federally issued rankings of nursing homes only reflect the home's performance during a very brief period, so the quality might have changed since the report was issued. Additionally, Medicare's grading system stipulates that only 10 percent of a state's nursing homes can receive the top rating of five stars, so a high-quality home might get four stars for no reason other than that it missed the arbitrary cutoff point.
2. Visit repeatedly. It's impossible to get a sense of what a nursing home is like from just one visit. In order to better understand life at a particular home, it pays to visit several times, over different days and at different times of the day. This way, you can get an overall feel for the place. Medicare.gov also provides a helpful PDF checklist you can take on visits to record what you see, hear, and smell. For instance, are staff and residents busy interacting, or is the place quiet and reserved? Does it smell like food, or cleaning supplies? Are there noticeable stains or broken fixtures? This is also your chance to talk directly with the nursing home's management, including the head physicians. If they can't make time to speak with you, it might be a good idea to move on and look at another home.
3. Ask the right questions. If you're placing a loved one in a nursing home, make sure to ask the facility's staff about "person-centered care" and "consistent assignment." The former is a term that means residents will be able to set their own schedules, including meal times and when they wake up. The latter means that the same team of physicians and assistants will deal with the same patients in each shift. This provides a feeling of continuity for residents and allows them to develop relationships with their caregivers.
4. Check their reputation. Every state in the country has a federally funded ombudsman overseeing long-term care who works as an advocate for nursing home patients. Your state's ombudsman will be able to help you find out more about nursing homes in your area and whether there is additional survey information on the facility in question. They can also tell you if any complaints have been filed against the nursing home. The National Long-Term Care Ombudsman Resource Center can help you learn more about your local ombudsman.