With the growth of the internet, detailed information about nursing homes is now available online. If you need to search for a facility for your loved one, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid’s web-based comparison tool may help. Through the agency’s disclosure of instances of abuse or neglect, you may determine online if a nursing home has a history of quality care or a record of mistreatment.
The CMS comparison tool also displays a facility’s health inspection reports. This may help indicate the level of staffing. Finding a nursing home placed on the agency’s Special Focus Facilities list means there are significant quality-of-care issues. If a facility on the SFF list does not improve, it may find itself ineligible to receive Medicare or other government subsidies.
As reported by MarketWatch, looking into a facility’s staff turnover rate may help determine whether your loved one will receive quality elder care. When staying at an understaffed nursing home, a resident will most likely receive a lesser degree of care than he or she deserves. An overworked employee may also act abusively toward patients in response to the stress and pressure of an overwhelming workload.
Fewer staff members may result in nursing home health and safety violations. When visiting a potential facility, look for dirty bed sheets, soiled clothes and wet floors. This could help to determine the type of care the facility’s residents can expect.
To help prevent a loved one from experiencing abuse or neglect, experts recommend finding a facility that offers at least four hours of direct care with each resident per day. When a nursing home’s staff is actively involved with its patients, you may expect a higher quality of care and a reduced chance of abuse or neglect.
