How Important Is It to Check Staffing Levels Before Choosing a Nursing Home?

If you are looking for a long care nursing facility for someone you love then, no doubt, you will want to choose a nursing home that has a history of providing quality care for its patients.

In order to help ascertain the quality of care one of the most important things that you can do is to analyze the staffing information at all of the nursing homes that you are considering. That's because there is a very high correlation between staffing levels and the quality of care in long term facilities.

In order to compare staffing levels the first thing that you should do is go to the Medicare Nursing Home Compare website.

Once you are on the site you will be able to compare facilities. It would be in the patients (and your) best interest to focus on nursing homes that are in your geographic area.

Compare CNA Hours

The first thing comparison you should make is the number of CNA (Certified Nursing Assistants) staffing hours at each of the facilities.

Certified Nursing Assistants are the people who are involved in most of the hands-on patient care at any long term nursing facility.

How Many RNs Are There?

After you have found nursing homes with high CNA staffing hours ascertain how many RNs (Registered Nurses) work at each of the facilities. Studies have shown that there is a high correlation between the number of RNs that are involved in a nursing home and the quality of care in that home.

After you have narrowed down your list you should go to each of the facilities that you are considering and talk to both the families of residents as well as the staff. Find out how many staff members are present on each of the shifts.

Review Form 2567

The next step is to read the most recent Form 2567 for each facility. These are state inspection reports that are produced after state inspectors make unannounced visits to the facilities. They contain information about compliance with Federal safety and health requirements, care issues, and sanitary conditions.

Consider how serious each of the problems is and find out if all of the deficiencies were corrected.

Visit the Nursing Homes

Next you should make a number of unannounced visits to each of the nursing homes that you are considering. When you show up unannounced you will be able to make a more realistic appraisal of how the facility is actually run day-in and day-out. You may even want to bring the prospective resident along with you on your visits to see how they feel about the various facilities you are considering.

Ask the person in charge to give you a tour. While being escorted around the establishment make mental notes as to whether or not the call lights are being responded to quickly, how clean the rooms, hallways, and meal tables are, and how the staff and the residents interact with each other.

As you continue your tour be aware of any bad smells such as feces or urine. If you see any physical restraints being used on any resident find out why they are being used.