In order to get the best quality of care, selecting the appropriate nursing home is very crucial. Here is a simple four-step guide you can follow.
1. Find Nursing Homes In Your Area.
There are several ways in which you can find nursing homes within your community. You can use the web tool of Medicare by visiting www.medicare.gov/NHCompare. Search by name, city, county, state, or ZIP code.
You can also ask for referrals from doctors, friends, family, loved ones, and even neighbors. Asking for referrals from someone who has had a personal experience with a nursing care facility would be much better.
For those who are in the hospital, making an inquiry to the hospital’s discharge planner may be a good idea. You can also call your local social service agency and speak with a social worker who can assist you on this matter.
Contacting your local agency on Aging might also help. They can provide you a list of long-term care options.
2. Compare the Quality of Service Your Options Are Offering.
There are various areas you need to probe into your various nursing care facility options. First, make sure they have conducted health and fire safety inspections to guarantee resident safety. Investigate the complaints filed against the facilities, with a special focus on elderly abuses. Pay attention to the environment of the nursing home, the interaction dynamics between Residents and healthcare professionals, and the services themselves.
There should be adequate staffing to respond in a personalized manner to the number of Residents present. A nursing home should have at least one RN working 8 hours a day and 7 days a week. Licensed Practical Nurses should be available round-the-clock and must undergo continuing education every year.
Every nursing home should have quality checking measures. They should have developed assessment tools for their Residents based on approved standards to determine what improvements need to be done. And when they do implement improvements, you need to find out if the attempts had been successful. Reading about what other people have to say is necessary.
Most importantly, you have to make sure that the activities offered by the nursing homes are appropriate and customized to the unique needs of their clients.
3. Conduct Visits to Their Facilities.
It is very important that you enjoy a higher quality of life inside the nursing home you will be choosing, not a downgraded one. One way of assuring this is by visiting the facilities. It will allow you to interact with the staff, talk with the residents and their families, and do ocular inspections of the facilities themselves. Consider space, amenities, facilities, and the overall structure of the place.
Take note of each facility’s location, availability, compliance to Civil Rights and other legal measures, and method of planning the care plan. They should involve you and your family in the planning phase to ensure better and client-centered outcomes. You should also find out how these care plans will be carried out though.
You should be able to see professionals within the facility during your time of visit. Staff present for the entire 24 hours will lessen the occurrences of escalated emergencies. Make sure you go for a facility that does not discriminate based on gender, religion, culture, language, ethnicity, and age.
Examine the credentials of your prospective nursing home facilities. They should have developed well-implemented policies for security and operations. They should have certifications and licenses to support their claims for expertise.
Find out about how they charge their services and how they connect with other healthcare facilities such as hospitals to ensure well-rounded care to their Residents.
Make sure you schedule your appointment so you will be entertained thoroughly when you conduct your facility visit. Visiting again is highly recommended so you can differentiate between the staff handling you on different days.
4. Choose the Nursing Home that Meets Your Needs.
Based on the information above, you may now choose a nursing care facility that will surely consider your unique needs. Remember that you can always get out after moving in if you think their services are not meeting your expectations. Know your stand and be careful in reading whatever documents you may have to fill out. Be sure everything stated in your agreement is fulfilled.
