Choosing A Nursing Home That Cares

The decision to move a loved one into a nursing home is often painful. Finding the right place, a nursing home that really cares, can be more difficult. Here are some helpful tips to guide you.

1. Make several unannounced visits to each prospective nursing home. A nursing home that will not let you visit unannounced may have something to hide.
2. Look, listen and smell. Rely heavily on your senses and gut instincts. Remember, most never get a second opportunity to make a first impression.
3. Look - Keep your eyes open. Look for a clean facility with well-groomed residents. Discretely try to assess the oral hygiene of the current residents. Look for obstacles or potential hazards at the facility. Frequently, obstacles and puddles left in the corridors endanger frail residents with failing vision and lead to unnecessary falls. For a discussion on the potential life threatening consequences of falls, go to falls.
4. Listen - Wander the halls and listen for the staff's tone when dealing with resident. Speak to residents and staff members to determine if they both enjoy being there. Make sure that the nurses and, nurses aides, mingle with the residents and treat them with dignity and respect.
5. Smell - Smell for strong odors urine, feces and air fresheners. While most nursing homes occasionally have odors, there should be no persistent stench or overwhelming scent of air fresheners.
6. Try to make at least one unannounced visit during meal-time. This will help you assess the food quality. More importantly, this will also allow you to make sure that those that cannot feed themselves are assisted by the staff.
7. Keep your eyes peeled for residents in restraints. The more you see the more leery and concerned you should be.
8. Make sure nurses are responding to residents needs. Watch for call lights that the residents use to summons help. See how long it takes for assistance to arrive; more than five minutes is too long and could suggest staff shortages.
9. Consult the most recent state's survey documenting the perspective nursing home's last inspection. A thorough review of the nursing home's state inspection report, is critical in making a nursing home selection. Federal law requires each state to conduct inspections of its nursing home facilities about once a year. Following these inspection, the state issues a survey report documenting its findings. Facilities are required under Federal law, 42 Code of Federal Regulation 483.10(g)(1), to make information publicly available and the Health Care Financing Administration's (HCFA) interpretive guidelines requires that all nursing homes keep a copy of the most recent survey report in a visible place for public inspection. Bad signs to look for on these reports include inadequate staffing and any problems affecting the residents' health, such as pressure sores, falls, malnutrition, dehydration and poor hygiene. Again, any nursing homes that will not show you its most recent survey results or, worse, claims an inability to produce this documentation, may well have something to hide. To review your perspective nursing home's most recent survey on-line, go to (insert nursing home web site link)
10. Visit frequently and vary your visitation schedule, once you picked a home. Residents with attentive family members who visit regularly tend to receive better care than those who are essentially abandoned or cared for away from family, such as in another state.

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