Tips on Finding the Best Nursing Home

Many baby boomers are faced with helping an older relative into a nursing home.  This is a difficult step for seniors and their close relatives, and it’s important that the choice of a good facility is well-founded and unhurried.  It’s not as if you can pick one nearby from the Yellow Pages or online.  The American Geriatrics Society’s Foundation for health in Aging has posted a short ‘tip sheet’ that gives advice on finding quality nursing home care.  Here are some highlights:

1. Check the licensure, Medicare/Medicaid certificates, and the degree of nursing care offered.  For instance, does it provide wound management, physical rehabilitation, and secure care for Alzheimer’s or other dementias?
2. Meet with the nursing home administrator and nursing director, to establish a good working relationship.  Are there policies which you aren’t comfortable with? 
3. Check cleanliness and safety.  Are there handrails everywhere necessary, sprinklers, fire extinguishers?  Are the floors clean and fall-proof?  Are there evacuation plans? 
4. Evaluate the level of staffing at different times of day.  Can they speak adequate English?  How are medications administered?
5. Visit at meal times.  Are residents who have difficulty feeding themselves being helped?  Are there special meals for residents needing them?
6. Enquire about routines and activities offered.  Are there activities other than TV, such as arts & craft classes, board and card games, chair exercise programs, religious services, and special entertainments?
7. Talk with residents.  What are their ‘complaints’, and how do the staff respond?

I’d add another check you should make, based on my experience.  Take a deep breath, through your nose.  The smell of urine and other excrement should be virtually undetectable, if the residents are being cared for properly.