Tips on finding a good nursing home Don't depend only on the federal Web site. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services maintains a Nursing Home Compare site, but Bell says comparing the information on that site to the state inspection reports on which it is based can give you an incomplete and possibly misleading picture of any home you have under consideration. Get the names of local facilities. Contact Eldercare Locator, a service provided by the U.S. Administration on Aging, to get a list of nursing homes in your area. Contact your local ombudsman. Every state has this government official whose job is to investigate nursing home complaints and advocate for residents and their families. The ombudsman can provide information about how to find a facility and get quality care, assist you with complaints and help you resolve problems. The NCCNHR Web site has links to every state’s ombudsman program. Consult third-party reports to winnow out bad facilities. Consumer Report's free Nursing Home Quality Monitor can help you cross potentially bad homes off your list. Avoid facilities that have appeared on their list repeatedly and those that performed poorly on two of their three dimensions of quality. Also check state penalty information on our site — if a nursing home has received even a small state fine, consider that a warning. Check the home's ownership. A resident's chances of receiving good care generally are better at an independent not-for-profit facility than at a for-profit chain. Ask whether the facility is about to (or has) changed owners. Be aware that if the facility is part of a large corporation that has split itself into smaller, limited-liability companies, you may have little recourse against the home if things go badly. Visit the homes incognito. Make several unannounced visits to facilities you are considering, at different times of the day. Drop in between 9:30 and 10 a.m., for example, to see how many people are still in bed. Homes with too few staff members don't get people out of bed until late in the day, if at all. Also visit at dinnertime — if 75 percent of the residents are eating in their rooms instead of the dining room, that's not a good sign. Ask the nurse aides how many residents they each care for; the smaller the number, the better. Read each home's state inspection survey. This form should be readily accessible at the front desk of every nursing home If it's not and you have difficulty obtaining it, consider that a warning that the facility may be hiding damaging information. A lengthy survey with lots of violations indicates problems. Visit the homes again. After you make two or three visits to the facility incognito, make an official appointment with the administrator to inquire about your findings. Also ask about any deficiencies that appeared on the state inspection survey; the percentage of residents who are incontinent, in restraints and/or have pressure sores; and staffing issues, including turnover. Also ask about top-level turnover. If the administrator and the director of nursing have worked at a facility for several years, that's a positive sign. Frequent changes in those positions indicate instability, which could translate into poor care. Ask the administrator to share his philosophy of care and how he respects residents' dignity and communicates that philosophy to the staff. Good care starts at the top. | 
Hotmail
