Grading your care facility
Nancy Menefee Jackson
Your parent or spouse needs help—way more help than you can give.
But how will you make sure that they're not neglected, that they get quality care in a nursing home, or that they get what's advertised in an assisted living facility?
"The overarching thing that I would recommend is that you visit as often as possible," says Tiffany Lundquist, spokesperson for the AARP in Maryland. "Try to go more than once before you decide, and trust your gut instinct. You can collect all the data you want, but if it doesn't feel right, go with your gut instinct."
When it comes to assisted living facilities, Lundquist recommends carefully scrutinizing the contracts—not the glossy brochures—since the contract is the legal document that stipulates what level of care they'll be providing.
AARP suggests some basic questions for assisted living facilities:
- Can residents choose their own doctors, therapists and pharmacies?
- What happens if a resident runs out of money?
- Under what conditions would a resident have to leave the facility?
- Is there a contract available that details all fees, services, admissions and discharge policies?
- What health care services are provided in the contract?
- What determines level of care?
- Are there security and fire safety systems?
For nursing homes, the AARP suggests asking:
- Is the nursing home Medicare/Medicaid certified?
- Has its license ever been revoked?
- How many licensed nurses, both LPNs and RNs, are on duty for each shift?
- What is the patient to staff ratio for both aides and nurses?
- Is the facility clean?
- Are the patients engaged? Do they interact with staff?
- Does the food look and smell good?
- Does the staff have special training to deal with dementia?
- Is physical therapy available for as long as the resident needs it?
The AARP has downloadable checklists to evaluate both nursing homes and assisted living facilities on their web site, www.aarp.org.
Medicare also offers a detailed nursing home checklist, one where you can score the various nursing homes you visit, which can be found at medicare.gov/Nursing/Checklist.asp.
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