Putting your parent in a nursing home is one of the hardest decisions you have made in your life, but you decided to do it because you want your mother or father to get better care than you are able to give. You want to make sure that the promise of care offered by a nursing home is more than just a promise, that your parent will be protected from nursing home abuse.
Here are a few basic tips from Medicare about finding the right nursing home for your loved one:
- Find a nursing home near your home or work—convenience is important. The easier visits are, the more you will make them, and nothing is more important to your loved one’s safety than your regular visits.
- Utilize Medicare’s Nursing Home Compare site to look at Five-Star Quality Ratings, health inspection results, nursing home staff data, quality measures, and fire safety inspection results. This gives you a good snapshot of the nursing home’s safety.
- Visit several nursing homes and utilize this thorough checklist to look for quality and safety issues.
- Before making a decision, contact the New Jersey State Survey Agency to see whether there are any pending or recent actions that may not have been entered into the Medicare database.
Remember, too, that nursing home safety is not just something that you are able to take care of once and then forget about. Changes in policy, personnel, or tenants can dramatically impact your loved one’s safety. Regular visits and constant vigilance are necessary to ensure your loved one remains safe at a nursing home.
If you have placed your loved one in a nursing home that you no longer believe to be safe, you may have legal rights to compensation for injuries your loved one has suffered. Please contact the Law Offices of Anthony Carbone in for a free case evaluation.