The best indicator of whether a nursing home can provide good care to your family member is whether the facility has enough well-trained staff to get the job done. You see...most nursing homes cut costs and increase profits by working with the fewest possible number of nurses and nursing aides. And patient care suffers whenever that happens.
Well, where do the nursing homes in Virginia rank in staffing? Try one of the 10 worst in the U.S. Don't believe me...check out this article in U.S. News & World Report.
My Take: Find out the ratio of staff to residents BEFORE selecting a nursing home.
Monday, December 22, 2008
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1 comments:
I have been trying to find out the exact criteria that are used for these rankings. So far, all that I can find out is that the rating is based on a combination of state and federal surveys. The state criteria vary from one to another. I think the staff to patient ratio is interesting but can be misleading at the same time. A facility that performs skilled care will have more staff than one that does not, etc.
I think that the rating system is a good start, but it is hard to make conclusions when the criteria are not transparent.
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