Before you send your loved one to a nursing home, you want to make sure that you are sending them somewhere where they will be safe. Safety should be your top concern when you are looking at nursing home and assisted living facilities to send your loved one to.

Check with the Department of Health

The Department of Health in your state is responsible not just for monitoring the care that doctors and hospitals provide their patients with, but for monitoring and regulating nursing as well. Nursing homes are regularly inspected by the Department of Health in your state. State inspectors make sure that nursing homes meet numerous criteria, including the quality of the food, the safety of the physical facility, the type of care available, the number of people on staff, and the satisfaction scores based on surveys from residents as well as family members of residents.

Checking the the Department of Health will allow you to see if the nursing home you are interested in sending your loved one to meets the minimum requirements to receive government funding. They can also let you know of any violations that the nursing home has received as well as what type of grade or score the nursing home has received for their care. This will allow you to see how a government agency views the performance of the nursing home that you are interested in sending your loved one to.

Visit the Nursing Home

Do not just rely on the information that you find online to pick a nursing home for your loved one. You need to get on the ground and do some in-person research. Looking at pictures and information online will not tell you if the staff responds with kindness to patients, how the facility smells, or how clean all the residents at the facility look.

To really find out how the nursing home takes care of its residents, you need to make an appearance in person to see how clean the facility is. See if you and your loved one can have a meal there and look over the menu as well. You want to make sure that your loved one will enjoy the menu that the facility serves.  

Taking the time to properly vet a nursing home before you move your loved one in is one way to prevent nursing home neglect. If you ever suspect that the care that your loved one is receiving, despite your vetting, is subpar, contact a personal injury attorney right away, who can help protect your loved one and make sure that they get the care that they need.

Share