Monday, August 31, 2009

Finding The Right Answers To Your Critical Nursing Home Questions

By Sean Patrick

Before placing a loved one into an assisted living or nursing home facility, you'll want to be well informed about the capabilities, comfort, safety, and overall quality of care offered by the facilities available in your area.

To ensure that you are as knowledgeable as possible, it is crucial to ask nursing home questions for which you need thoughtful (and complete) answers.

Asking the right folks about nursing homes is critical to finding the answers you need - just because you made a few visits to local facilities and asked the staff members questions doesn't mean that you've done enough due diligence to know everything you need to know - you have to go outside of the actual facilities as workers tend to have biased views.

In addition to the information nursing home staff members offer, consider a few alternative sources:

-Doctors in the area: ask your own doctor or a friend's doctor any questions you may have. These can actually provide for great resources.

-Social networks: your loved ones friends and extended family may well be in the know about nursing home choices, good and bad. If they aren't, they may be able to put you in touch with someone who will give you unbiased answers.

-BBB: the Better Business Bureau is always a great resource to figure out what facilities in your area have had complains in the past.

-Watch Organizations: since the Internet has made a splash there are many watchdog organizations out there - including the Abuse Blog (nursinghomesabuseblog.com). Feel free to Google and look at the top results - chances are you can interact with these blogs and forums and get the right answers you need.

-Local police: a great place to get answers about incidents involving residents or staff at prospective senior care firms in your area.

While researching thorough answers for the nursing home questions you may have, these 5 outlets will be a great place to start. Make sure you do the proper due diligence needed to ensure the safety and comfort for you or your loved one.

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