How to Get a Nursing Home

Getting a nursing home is not a walk in the park. Nevertheless, you can surely find the suitable type with enough effort in doing your research.

As of today, there are about 1.5 million patients living in various nursing homes as indicated by the Dept. of Health and Human Services. More than 90% are those beyond 65 years of age. Additionally, most of them have dementia and needs frequent monitoring.

A nursing home may have the services rendered in a hospital. Nonetheless, it does not entirely have the same setting. Medical aid may always be available but the true goal of this kind of institution is to let patients engage on an independent life. This means that no matter how old they are, the health care professionals working in these places encourage them to apply self-care.

Selecting a Nursing Home

It is always important to evaluate the needs of a person whom you want to admit in a nursing home. That way, you can easily consider those facilities which can grant these needs.

Once the person has been admitted to the hospital, the social workers or the professional who is in-charge of discharging the patient can help you in looking for a suitable nursing home.

If you are choosing a nursing facility for someone who is presently at home, ask for referrals from your physician, Area Agency on Aging, friends, and family.

It is important for you to consider various factors too. These include the place itself, the kind of services, quality of care, cost, accommodations and other miscellaneous issues.

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 visits, and at different times and on different days of the week.

As you are walking around, take note of what you hear and don’t hear. Is it silent? Is there activity? How clean does 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?

Helpful Hints

Another important reminder is to know the rights of the patient and even your rights before signing a contract for the patient’s admission. Never sign if there are some minor or major issues that you haven’t understood yet.

There are common factors included in the admissions agreement. Some of the factors are the daily room fee, the rationalizations as to why the patient needs to be admitted in a nursing home and the payment system if the patient is readmitted to the hospital or if the family requests for the patient to go home with them even for just a short time.

It is a common issue if bringing your loved one to a nursing home is a right decision. As long as your intentions are the best for your loved one, no one will ever ask anything else from you.

The author is a multifaceted writer. She creates articles for a number of topics like marriage and relationship advices, great deals on evening dresses and quinceanera gowns, family and parenting concerns, fashion and beauty tips and a lot more.

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