Selecting a Nursing Home
Choosing a nursing home is one of the most difficult decisions to make. There are alternatives to nursing homes that should be considered.  Many of those options are adult foster homes, residential care facilities, assisted living, and memory care facilities. It is most important to consider the needs of the resident. Some people need a little assistance with their activities of daily living. They may be appropriate for assisted living or residential care. Some with memory deficits could benefit from memory care facilities. Nursing homes are for those that need frequent redirection or high levels of medical care.

To make those difficult choices you should have a physician evaluation and obtain a pre admission screening (PAS) to determine the appropriate care for your loved one. A PAS can be obtained by contacting the Department of Senior and People with Disabilities. Public information is a good place to start when selecting a nursing home. Every Nursing facility has an annual survey. These surveys are conducted by a team of competent professionals. All concerns are presented to the facility after the survey. The facility must then submit a plan of correction. The important part of the survey is the severity, not the number of deficiencies. Written copies are available for public viewing at the nursing home, at the local office of Senior and People with Disabilities, the Client Care Monitoring Unit and at medicare.gov.		 For medicare.gov, click on nursing home compare. This is a report on how the nursing home is doing with their state surveys. You can also compare other nursing homes in the region that you are looking. You can check staffing ratios that were reported during the annual survey. Some data may seem high or low depending on what the resident care mix is, for example a facility may have high use of psychotropic medications. This may mean that the facility specializes in certain services and does it very well, or it may be a something to check when you visit the facility.  Survey citations and substantiated complaints are also listed and are reported in scope of severity and should be compared to other facilities in the community.

The facility environment should be neat, clean, odor free and in good repair. There are times however when a floor may need mopping, or there is a transient odor, or a sticky surface. These should be resolved in a few minutes. Visit at a different time or come back to the location of your concern to see if the issue is resolved.

Oregon has established minimum staffing requirements for a nursing facility. The facility should however be responsive to the needs of the residents and adequately staff for their care needs. Ask about staffing ratios, and use of agency staff. The answer to that question can give you an indication of whether the facility has enough staff to safely care for your loved one.