Things to Consider When Selecting a Nursing Home

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There are many different factors to consider when choosing a long-term care facility for you or your loved one:

  • Level of care needed
  • Length of care required
  • Location
  • Cost
  • Quality of care

Many times people are faced with selecting a nursing home or other long term care facility for themselves or their loved one after a life changing even occurs or their condition is already beyond the level where they can be cared for in a private home setting.  It would be a good idea to begin thinking of long term care before it becomes necessary to transfer to long term care, which gives you a better ability to find a long-term care facility that is best for you or your family.

  • The first decision that needs to be made is the level of care required. Which services will you or your loved one need help with? Grooming, cooking and cleaning or assistance with medications? Possibly skilled nursing and medical treatment or memory care. Some residents need round the clock care and supervision. Some residents may qualify for hospice care. We will cover all the levels of care in more detail in a separate article, but keep in mind that there are several different levels of care available in a long-term care setting:
  • Senior Retirement Community (independent living)
  • Assisted Living Facility
  • Short-Term or Long-Term Rehabilitation
  • Long Term Acute Care
  • Skilled Nursing Facility

Entering into one of these facilities can be short term, such as following a hospital stay or injury or long term, which is usually a permanent placement, depending on the situation.

One obvious factor that you need to take in consideration when selecting a long-term care facility is location.  Think about nearby friends and family and how often they would visit.  If the facility is too far away, it makes it difficult for friends and family to visit very often.  Is the facility near an airport if the family lives out of state? Who will be the local contact person in the event of an emergency.  Also, how close are the resident’s doctors and medical providers? Is there a hospital near the facility? If the person entering into the facility is still mobile and able to go out into the community, what is the proximity of grocery stores, shops, restaurants and other activities that the facility may take the residents to.

Another important factor in selecting a nursing home or long-term care facility is how it will be financed. How will the expenses of the long-term facility be covered? Again, this will be a topic we will cover in detail in another article, but generally these are the payment options to keep in mind when selecting a nursing home:

  • Private pay
  • Medicare (only covers a certain amount of days under limited circumstances)
  • Medicaid (under certain financial requirements)
  • Long term care insurance

One of the most important things to consider when choosing a long-term care facility or nursing home is the quality of care at that facility.  There are several different ways you can assess the quality of care for a long-term care facility:

  1. CMS Nursing Home Compare: Go to the website https://www.medicare.gov/nursinghomecompare/search.html and look up nursing homes in the area or the specific nursing home you are considering. There is a wealth of information available on this site, including the CMS five-star rating system, staffing levels, deficiencies and surveys (on-site annual and complaint inspections) and ownership and corporate information.
  2. Check with your local long-term care ombudsman
  3. Visit the nursing home:
  • Ask questions about the programs and services available
  • Note whether the facility appears clean and “happy”
  • Do the residents appear clean and happy
  • Do you observe any activities for the residents
  • Inspect the residents’ rooms and common areas
  • Observe how the staff treat the residents-not just the visitors
  • Have a meal at the cafeteria if available
  • Listen to what is happening around the facility-for cries for help, bed or chair alarms going off or call bells that may be going unanswered
  • Do the staff appear unconcerned with what is going on around them? Frazzled?
  • Meet with the Administrator-is the nursing home administration willing to meet with you to listen to your concerns?

In the end, do your research, but listen to your gut feeling. If you don’t have a good feeling about the facility, it may be best to try a different facility. You want to be comfortable leaving your loved one in a competent and caring facility. If you would like to learn how to find out more about a potential nursing home, feel free to call the nursing home abuse attorneys at Wagner Hughes, LLC at (404) 900-6979.