Money After 50
Assessing Nursing Homes
Easier access to inspection results will help loved ones choose nursing homes
for fragile elderly and others. Here are two information choices to help you in
your search.
Go to the Medicare Web Site web site and select
"nursing home compare."
Follow the steps to determine the state, county, and nursing home that interest
you.
The good news is some Arkansas nursing homes received no negative ratings on
recent inspections. However, some Arkansas nursing homes are flagged for having
deficiencies that may cause a high potential for patient harm.
A second site,
Memberofthefamily, presents inspection
data in color and flags homes with high risk potential because they had repeated
violations in the last two years.
Comparative reporting programs are tools, not solutions. Along with
inspection research, choosing a home involves visiting the facility and
interviewing the staff to determine if it meets the specific needs of your loved
one, the patient. Once a loved one enters a home, aging professionals recommend
frequent visits and visiting at off-peak hours. What happens on a Sunday
afternoon can be significantly different than conditions on a Thursday night.
So often decisions about a nursing home are made in a hurry. Many consumers
depend on hospital-based social workers. The social worker often tends to
recommend homes close to or affiliated with the hospital. The new rating systems
will help consumers, who must act quickly, find a solution that is suitable to
the resident and family caregivers and advocates.
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