When your parents have reached a point where they are no longer safe living on their own, a skilled nursing care facility can be the perfect solution for them. This can obviously be a difficult and worrisome time for the entire family, but doing your research is how to choose a nursing home that will best suit your loved one. As you research skilled care nursing facilities, and help your parents make the right decision, there are some important things to ask before you decide on a skilled nursing care facility.
- Are residents free to make choices? If the resident has just moved from their own home, where he or she has been able to make all their own decisions when it comes to bedtime, dinner time, etc, it can be difficult to all of a sudden have those decisions made for you. Find out how much freedom the skilled nursing care facility allows its residents.
- Is the facility certified and accredited? Make sure the facility is inspected and accredited by the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, and certified by Medicare.
- How does one facility compare to others? Medicare actually has a helpful tool that enables you to compare a number of facilities in a particular area based on various criteria.
- What are the official policies? You don’t want to assume all facilities have the same policies. With each facility, you want to find out their policies on smoking, visiting hours, pets, roommates, doctors, etc.
- What are the security and safety precautions? Find out about each facility’s fire safety precautions, hospital transport, back-up power generation, security guards, and protection policy for personal belongings.
- What is the staffing situation? You want to find out about the quality and quantity of the staff on-site. There should be enough staff to take adequate care of all of the patients, but they should also be qualified and caring.
- What kinds of activities are available? Find out what the daily nursing home activities schedule is like, and what unscheduled activities are available. You want to make sure the activities are a good fit for the potential resident.
- What is the fee schedule? Be sure you fully understand what is and is not included in the fee structure. The cost of nursing home care can be very high, so you want to make sure you understand what you’re getting for your money, and aren’t hit with hidden charges.
- What type of preventative care is offered? It’s important to make sure the nursing home facility will keep your loved one’s physical and mental health from declining once they are a resident. You want to check on meal nutrition, exercise programs, brain-building games, and social worker presence.
- How does the facility work with the ombudsman program? Your local ombudsman is a good person with whom to become acquainted, a loved one is going to be residing in a nursing home.Down the line, if you have any complaints about the quality of care, your local ombudsman will investigate those complaints.
Refernce materials: www.croftoncrc.com
