How to Find the Best Nursing Homes

Deciding to put a loved one into a nursing home is a tough decision. Once you’ve made that decision, then you will face an even tougher decision — which nursing home is the best? Here we will cover how to find the best nursing homes.

First, we know that location is important. You need to be close to your loved one. Frequent visits are beneficial for your elderly family member’s emotional and mental health. In addition to location, you want to make sure that the nursing home is providing quality care. You want to make sure it’s one of the best in the area.

But how?

Since we handle nursing home abuse and neglect cases, we frequently get asked which nursing homes are best and which are the worst. We always guide people to an online tool provided by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services called Care Compare.

Care Compare is an index that uses data provided by nursing homes and regulators that affect patient care. According to the Care Compare User Guide:

The ratings take the form of several ‘star’ ratings for each nursing home. The primary goal of this rating system is to provide residents and their families with an easy way to understand assessment of nursing home quality, making meaningful distinctions between high and low performing nursing homes.

Some of the more important data factors include staffing levels, staff turnover ratio, and health inspection deficiencies. The qualitative data results in a 1 to 5 star rating, with 1 being the worst and 5 being the best. Obviously, you want a 5 star facility, or at least a 4.

We have handled hundreds of nursing home injury and death cases. We can confirm that the majority of those cases were against nursing homes that had a 1 or 2 star rating. However, we have seen neglect and abuse occur even in 5 star nursing homes.

Another tool to use is the Alabama Department of Public Health’s website, which provides several types of information about nursing homes across the state. The most important pieces of information on this site are the “deficiency reports.” If a nursing home has repeated serious deficiencies that are recent in time, look elsewhere.

Even at the best nursing homes, preventable injuries and deaths still occur. In the event you believe your loved one is suffering neglect or abuse in a nursing home, you should read our Complete Guide to Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect. The Complete Guide will give you information in order to protect your family member.

The best way to prevent harm to your loved one is to do your research before choosing a nursing home. We hope the above-listed tools help you in this process. If we can be of assistance in any way with a nursing home-related dispute, please contact us. We take elder abuse seriously at our firm.