Help in Evaluating Long Term Care Facilities
(NursingHomes)

by Christopher Reedy, Esquire
It is always a difficult decision when it becomes apparent that it is time to move your loved one Into a long term care facility. Despite the entire family’s best efforts there becomes a time when caring for your loved one at home is no longer an option and you must find a facility to place your loved one in.

This difficult decision is oftentimes made harder by people’s uncertainty and unfamiliarity with long term care facilities. Whether a nursing home or an assisted living facility, unless you have previous experience dealing with a facility you can become overwhelmed with making this important decision.

Where to Start?

A good place to start when you begin looking for long term care facilities is to generate a list of the facilities that are in your area. After generating a list of the facilities that meet your requirements you will need to begin narrowing down this list by investigating each facility and determining whether or not the facility is right for your loved one.
 

Schedule a Visit to the Nursing Home.

It is always a good idea for you to visit the facility and see first hand how the facility is run. During your visit keep a critical eye out for potential problems. If the facility does not seem clean and well run than this is not a good sign that you would want to place your loved one in this facility.

When you visit you should have a list of questions that you wish to ask. The facility staff should be willing to answer your questions and if they are not, this should raise a red flag. A good starting point for a list of questions can be found at http://www.medicare.gov/Nursing/Checklist.asp. This list provides useful questions and tips to help you in evaluating a nursing home. It covers such topics as general information about the facility, the quality of life of the residents, the quality of care provided, nutrition, and safety. It would be advisable to print out this list to use when you visit each home. In addition to the questions on the checklist, some other questions you might want to ask are:

• Does the facility accept Medicaid?
• Does the facility require private pay before accepting Medicaid, and if so, how long? (This is often referred to as Key Money. Many facilities want you to pay privately for a period of time before they will accept Medicaid.)
• Does the facility have a waiting list?

In addition to these questions, you should come up with questions of your own. The long term facility should answer whatever question you might come up with to help put your mind at ease.

By putting in some time and effort to research different facilities, you can ensure that your loved one will receive the best quality of care and this will help to put your mind at ease during a very stressful situation. If you still feel that the task of finding a place for your loved one is too overwhelming, you can seek the services of professionals. There are professionals out there who can assist you with the entire process of finding a facility for your loved one.

Help in Evaluating Long Term Care Facilities Continues.....