How to Find a Quality Nursing Home
By Barry Zimmer on September 14th, 2017 in Elder Law
An Ohio nursing home lawyer provides you with help in researching your options for nursing home care and can assist you in making certain that you will be able to pay for care in the facility that you select. Finding the right care environment for yourself or for a family member who must go to a nursing home is a difficult process, but it is an important process because the choice of nursing home environments will have a profound impact on quality of life.
Zimmer Law Firm can provide assistance in conducting the necessary research into a nursing home’s reputation and history of citations or complaints to determine if a nursing home is an acceptable care environment.
We can also provide help with making a plan to get Medicaid to cover your nursing home care without you first having to impoverish yourself. This is important because Medicaid is the only source of nursing home payments for many seniors who require care, but Medicaid is means-tested so you won’t be able to qualify if you have too much wealth.
It is best to begin making a Medicaid plan and conducting research into nursing homes before you need care since it can take time to find the best care facility. Farm and Dairy recently published a helpful guide to finding the right nursing home, which may be a good starting point – although there is no substitute for getting proper legal advice.
Finding a High Quality Nursing Home
Farm and Dairy advises that you consider a few key factors when selecting a nursing home. Location is important so family members will easily be able to visit. Price can be a big factor if you must pay out of pocket (Medicare and private insurance typically won’t pay, so paying out of pocket is necessary unless and until you qualify for Medicaid). You’ll also need to make sure that the care facility offers the services needed by you or your loved one and you should find out how home-like the nursing home is to see if you or your loved one will be comfortable there.
Finding out about the reputation of the nursing home is important, because nursing home abuse and neglect are far too common. A star-based rating system rates nursing homes on the national Nursing Home Compare Website, according to Farm and Fairy. Other resources include inspection reports from Ohio’s Long-Term Consumer Care Guide, which also offers data on resident satisfaction in Ohio’s nursing home.
While researching nursing homes is a good starting point to get information that you need, Farm and Dairy also recommends that you visit a facility in person if you are considering the facility for yourself or for a loved one. Visiting at least twice, and making those visits at different times of the day, will give you a lot of insight. For example, you could visit at meal time and see how residents and staff members are interacting with each other. A home environment where there is pleasant conversation among residents is much more likely to be a comfortable and happy place to live. You can also see if residents are offered choices of food and how interested residents look in eating what is served to them.
When you visit nursing homes, you can check out their list of social activities to see if they offer things that you or your family member might be interested in. You can find out if residents have the ability to go outside, and if there are opportunities for meaningful interactions between residents so you or your loved one who moves to the care facility will be able to maintain strong social connections. You can also see if staff members are pleasant and friendly in interacting with both each other and with nursing home patients. A respectful and friendly staff who seem to show pride in how they do their work are likely to create a much better living environment than a staff who seem disinterested or bored.
Getting Help from An Ohio Nursing Home Lawyer
An Ohio nursing home lawyer at Zimmer Law Firm can offer you personalized help with the process of researching a nursing home and can guide you through the creation of a plan to ensure you can pay for the home that you select. To find out more about the nursing home related services we offer, join us for a free seminar. You can also give us a call at 513.721.1513 at any time to get help selecting the right nursing home.