The decision to place your loved one in a nursing home is a difficult one. We understand this: the attorneys and staff at our office have all placed someone they love in a nursing home or lost folks close to them. We know what it’s like: it’s a terrible situation. We want to make it more bearable for you, and we want to help you find a nursing home that will treat your loved one with the care he or she deserves.
Whether you are planning ahead for a likely nursing home stay for a parent or are facing this decision unexpectedly, it is important to select a reputable, high-quality nursing home. There are more than 1,000 nursing homes in Ohio, and it can be difficult to determine which nursing home will provide the best care to your loved one.
With that in mind, we’ve compiled some helpful information from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Ohio Department of Aging to help you choose a nursing home in Ohio.
To find nursing homes in your area, you can ask trusted family, friends, and neighbors if they have any experience with nursing homes. Ask for recommendations for high-quality nursing homes.
You can also visit the State of Ohio Long-Term Care Consumer Guide. This guide allows you to find nursing homes in a certain county or city or within a certain distance of your city. It also allows you to search based on the services you need, including Alzheimer’s and dementia care, behavioral care, hospice care, ventilator care, and others.
Searches on the Long-Term Care Consumer Guide will give you information about each facility, including an overview of the center, price rates, payment methods, the number of staff, the ratio of staff to residents, the services offered, and more. The search will also give the results of the most recent Family Survey, a survey given to family members of nursing home residents asking about their satisfaction with the nursing home’s care. The search shows the nursing home’s overall score from the survey in comparison with the state average.
The Medicare service Nursing Home Compare will let you compare the quality of nursing homes. The service provides a quality rating (out of five stars), detailed information on health inspections, staff, and more. This information can give you a better idea of the care given by nursing home staff, the activities available for residents, and the condition of the facility.
It’s important to note that not all nursing homes are certified to participate in Medicaid or Medicare. According to Medicare.gov, “To be a certified provider under Medicare or Medicaid, nursing homes have to meet more than 150 regulations that Congress has set to protect nursing home residents.
Finally, it is essential that you actually visit each prospective nursing home facility. Interview the staff and, if possible, talk with the residents and their family. Ask about the facility’s care, staffing, availability, certification, charges etc. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services guide to choosing a nursing home offers a checklist of important questions to ask when visiting a nursing home.
Before entering a nursing home, your loved one must go through a pre-admission review. The reviewer will also work with your loved one to determine the level of care he or she needs and help choose a facility. The Office of the State Long-term Care Ombudsman, a government agency advocating for those receiving nursing home care, can also assist you in finding a facility. The Dayton-area ombudsman program can be reached at its website, by calling 1-800-395-8267, or visiting its office at 11 W. Monument, Suite 606 in Dayton.
