Five Risky Ways People Choose Nursing Homes
Myths associated with selecting nursing homes suggest quick and easy ways to identify quality care, but relying on these myths can lead to disastrous results. Here are five worst ways to select a nursing home and one of the best.
(PRWEB) March 30, 2004--Myths associated with selecting nursing homes suggest
quick and easy ways to identify quality care, but relying on these myths can
lead to disastrous results. Here are five of the worst ways to select a nursing
home.
1. The Personal Recommendation:
Last weekend Jim, a friend
who had put his mother in a nursing home recommended by a friend, called me in a
panic. Although his mother was recuperating from a stroke, no nurse or aide
checked on her the night before. Jim discovered her in the morning with many
cuts and bruises, her sheets soaked in blood.
“I can’t believe anyone
would recommend that nursing home,” he complained. “My friend said her
grandmother was in this particular nursing home, so, I thought it would be good
care."
"How often does your friend visit her grandmother?" I asked him.
"I didn't think to ask."
"And did you check the latest state
survey for that nursing home?"
"No," he answered. "I thought a personal
recommendation was all I needed."
Jim's mother is now back in an area
hospital. No one knows if she’ll recover.
Use personal recommendations
only as an addition to your own investigation. Never decide on a nursing home
based on a recommendation alone.
2. The Smell Test:
You've heard it
repeatedly: "The best way to find out about the quality of a nursing home is to
notice how it smells.”
It seldom, if ever, works.
Why? Nursing
homes have heard the same adage. They are keenly aware of unpleasant odors in
areas that might receive visitors. Almost all do their best to remove offensive
odors as quickly as possible, even if it means avoiding their primary
responsibility to their residents.
3. You Get What You Pay
For:
Nowhere is this statement less applicable than in nursing home care.
Replace it with another adage -- "Buyer Beware."
Research from The Best
Is Yet.Net, covering more than 6000 nursing homes and more than 100 assisted
living facilities, shows no link between cost and quality of care. You may find
quality care in an expensive facility, or you may not. Similarly, you may find
quality care in an inexpensive facility, or you may not. Relying on price as the
sole indicator of quality care can result in disaster.
4. Enough Staffing
Equals Quality Care:
A recent report from the Senate's Special Committee on
Aging showed that satisfactory care for a single nursing home resident requires
more than three hours every day of nursing and nursing aide time. However,
statistical analysis of the latest federal database on nursing home deficiencies
showed no link between deficiencies and staffing levels, a finding consistent
with several university studies.
What should you look for in nursing
home staffing levels?
Severely understaffed homes cannot provide quality
care. Do not consider any home providing fewer than two hours of care daily for
each resident.
In homes with enough staffing, focus on staff attitudes.
Staff motivated to care for the elderly will do so. Staff motivated only by a
paycheck will provide shoddy care regardless of their numbers.
5. A
Well-Known Chain Will Provide the Best Care:
Choosing care based on the name
of the company can lead to tragedy. Some well-known companies do provide quality
care. Others, however, boast long records of legal troubles stemming from
accusations of neglect and abuse. Several states' attorneys general have
simultaneously sued one such company.
How can you know which is which?
The company is not likely to tell you, so research the company’s history.
There you have it – five risky myths exploded!
What does work?
Your own investigation. With a little research and several personal visits to
nursing homes before you sign anything, you can avoid many of the problems
experienced by people who relied on such
myths.
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Read more.
"101 Ways to Spot a Bad Nursing Home" is included at no cost in our special
bonus package, given to buyers of How to Find Great Senior Housing (2nd
edition). Learn more at our website: http://www.thebestisyet.net
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/3/prweb114874.htm