Making The Nursing Home Choice

While putting a loved one in a nursing home is a hard decision, there may come a time when it is the right one. It will help if you do your homework and trust your instincts.

In accordance to the Department of Health and Human Services, the nation’s nursing homes provide care to over 1. 5 million people. Over 90% of these residents are over era 65. Most of the residents are frail and require round-the-clock supervision due to dementia.

Things You Need to Know

A nursing home is a residence that provides room, meals, nursing and rehabilitative care, medical services and protective supervision to its residents. While someone coming from the hospital may require the services of many long-term care specialists such as nurses, therapists and social workers, a nursing home is not a hospital (acute care) setting. The goal at a nursing home is to help people maintain because their independent functioning as you can in a supporting environment.

Choosing a Facility

One of the first facts to consider when making a nursing home choice is the needs of the individual for whom you are providing care. Make a set of the special proper care they need, such as dementia care or a number of therapy.
If the person is hospitalized, the discharge planner and/or social personnel can assist you in assessing the needs of the individual and tracking down the appropriate facility.
When you are choosing a nursing facility for someone who is presently at home, ask for referrals from your physician, Region Agency on Aging, friends, super fast reply and family.
Other factors such as location, cost, the quality of care, services, size, religious and cultural preferences, and accommodations for special care have to be considered.
When you’ve located a few facilities that you’d like to consider more thoroughly, plan on visiting each one, both with scheduled and unscheduled appointments, and at different times and on different times of the week.
As you are walking around, take take note of what you hear and don’t hear. Will be it silent? Is there activity? How clean will it look? Are the residents dressed appropriately for the season? Most importantly, find out the ratio of nurses to residents is and what is the staff turnover rate?