Elder Law

What Makes a Great Nursing Home

By Levin & Perconti

In a typical year more than 3.2 million Americans will spend at least some time in a nursing home. The U.S. News ranks and displays data about almost every nursing home in the country. They rely on the Nursing Home Compare which is a program run by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. It analyzes information on all the homes enrolled in the program and looks at three arrears: health inspections, nurse staffing and measure of care. At the Nursing Home Compare website you can search for a specific home or ones in a certain area. Health inspections include safety matters such as food preparation and infection control. Nurse staffing report the average number of residents per nurse. The area of quality measures includes areas such as pain, bedsores and mobility. Doing research is an important process of choosing a nursing home. This must be done in order to avoid nursing home negligence. To learn more about the nursing home ratings, please click the link.

Full post as published by Illinois Nursing Home Abuse Blog on January 13, 2010 (boomark / email).