Every single day, in some rehabilitation and care centers and in some nursing homes, patients are being permitted to develop bedsores on their bodies due to lack of care and negligence. Every doctor knows that to avoid and prevent bedsores, you must turn or move a patient at least once every two hours. Yet in some of the nursing homes where the care is lacking, patients are allowed to sit and lay in one position for up to six or seven hours each and every day and then the same in the nighttime. You can prevent this from happening to someone that you love by just knowing this information and by doing what you can to make sure that patients in all facilities are being taken care of.
I urge you to be very careful in choosing a rehabilitation and care center.
I urge you to be careful in choosing nursing homes. And if at all possible, try to keep yourself at home instead of resorting to using any of these corporations in your life. Every human would probably be better off in their own homes rather than residing in rehab and care centers and in nursing homes. Yes, there are some good ones, but there are some horrible ones. It is up to you to distinguish which is which one.
The following article is for your information. If you need professional help, contact a lawyer, counselor, or doctor immediately.
First ,a little background and information about nursing homes and rehab centers: Nursing homes and physical rehabilitation centers are in a world of their own. And when you find the ones that are extremely focused on security so much that you feel like you are in a concentration camp and not in a nursing home, then you know that something is very wrong in that facility. I have learned from experience, from visiting patients and residents inside of various nursing homes and rehabilitation centers that the good nursing homes feel like that, like homes, while the bad nursing homes feel like you are in a war and you are the prisoner. Go with your feelings. If you are evaluating nursing homes and rehab centers, go with your feelings. Your feelings are true. If you feel that something is wrong but you cannot immediately put your finger on what is wrong, listen to your inner instinct, and search for a better nursing home or rehab center. The world is not all harmful. Trust that there are nursing homes that actually take good care of people. You just need to be diligent, focused and persistent in your evaluations of these places.
SO, what would you look for if you were looking for a good nursing home?
Try beginning here:
- Peace, quietness with activity, cleanliness and orderliness.
- Adequate room, space, recreation activities and appropriate therapy, equipment, tools and staff.
- Advertisements, brochures, research and background & word of mouth reputation
Peace, quietness with activity, cleanliness and orderliness (These is what I saw when I visited the nursing home that actually takes care of their patients and residents)
Peace, quietness with activity and cleanliness and orderliness are priorities when searching out a great place to live or temporary visit. If you walk in and you feel peaceful, then you know the place is doing it's job. The peace that you should experience is not a "twilight" zone peacefulness where you hear no sound and see no people, but a peacefulness where you see the hub-bub of what's happening around.
In the good place, there were always relatives, friends, and even young people visiting. There was consistent and daily visitors and good activities. As opposed to the bad nursing home, where most of the activities were staff trying to keep residents in bed, and away from visitors.
If you walk into a place and see people arguing constantly or if you see someone having fits in the lobby and it appears to be a regular thing, you might need to look elsewhere for your nursing home or physical rehabilitation center. Cleanliness is of the utmost importance, so notice how the place looks. Notice if you are on one of the upper floors if there is dirty clothing around or soiled linens in the hallways. These are small signs that something is wrong. Notice if many of the residents or patients are complaining that their clothing is "lost" or that clothing doesn't seem to come back from the laundry at that place. These are all things to notice if you are going to do an appropriate evaluation of any facility.
Orderliness , yes notice that. Is everyone "losing" things? Are many patients or staff complaining that something is always "missing"? These are things to note and things to take into consideration when checking out a nursing home. Orderliness is a sign that things are possibly going okay but always thoroughly check out the physical rehabilitation place or the nursing home and keep checking it out until you are satisfied that you have seen everything that you need to see. Never choose a place in haste.
Adequate room, space, recreation activities, tools and staff:
Adequate room, space and recreation activities are very important in these facilities, nursing homes and physical rehabilitation centers. Are you looking around and seeing overcrowded rooms? Are you seeing tons of wheelchairs all over the hallways but not seeing enough staff attending to those who need help?
Are you seeing residents and patients crying or yelling for help but the staff appears to be ignoring those pleas for help? Notice whatever you see, and make note s in your small notebook. You will not remember everything by member, so do not rely on that. Just write it all down.
Appropriate therapy equipment and tools:
Look for the physical therapy room. Have a tour of the entire place before committing to any admission to the facility. Specifically ask to see the physical therapy room if you are there for therapy. How is the equipment stored and maintained? Is the equipment clean? Is there enough equipment?
What about special equipment that is needed for patients and residents who have special needs? Are there "amputee" walkers in the therapy room or do the amputees have to hop around like a frog in order to get from one place to another in the physical therapy room. Are there crutches in the room but the personnel refuses to train the residents on the crutches? Are staff and personnel too occupied with being worried about liability rather than being occupied with helping, aiding and giving proper treatment and care to new patients?
Try and look at the therapy room when it is "full" -usually early in the morning or early afternoon. How many residents are in the room? How many are actually doing therapy? How long do residents "wait" for their therapy; how long do they just sit and sit and sit during the day, and during the pre-therapy sessions?
Ask your regular family doctor what kind of therapy or what kind of care that the patient needs. If you have discovered that you are in one of the horrible nursing homes, find your own doctor, and do not rely on their own doctors. II learned this too late; but you are now informed about what would be most helpful to you. Do not rely on "their " doctors but have your own if you are able to afford that.
Advertisements, fancy brochures, research and background and word of mouth reputation:
Know that word of mouth reputation is probably more important than advertising and brochures. You need to know which residents used to go there and how they liked the care that they received there. You need to hear that from impartial people, not from staff, personnel or doctors. Research . Go online and see if this place is on the list of the WORST nursing homes in the country. But, do not relax too soon. EVEN if this place is not on the list, that doesn't mean that it is not a bad place. All that means is that it is not on the list YET.
Advertisements: : When the advertisement looks as if it is describing a totally different facility, that might be false advertising , so be aware of these things. Does the advertisement say there is a pool, yet there is no pool? When you ask to see it are you told, "it is under construction" -- yet, the advertisement or brochure makes it "appear" as if the pool is there already and ready for use or in use already. Does the advertisement offer a solarium or private rooms, when there clearly are no solarium or private rooms available. Does the brochure offer MUCH but the facility offers little? These are warning signs. These are signs to look for.
So do your homework, your research and your observations before committing to enroll anyone in any physical rehabilitation center or in any nursing home.
Google the name of the nursing home or rehabilitation center. See what comes up.
Check with your consumer affairs agencies and with your Better Business Bureaus. Even though this is a nursing home, you still might be able to check with the Better Business Bureau to find out what kind of customer service policy they have or to find out if there are any previous complaints against this nursing home or physical rehabilitation center.
Look Around You:
See everything that you can see. If possible , visit the place more than once before you do any admissions of patients or relatives.
Listen to those around you. Yes, listen. As residents and patients and families pass you by in the hallways, listen to the conversations that they are having . You will be surprised at what you hear when you listen to other conversations in the hallways of the nursing homes and physical rehabilitation centers.
See if you can get a tour of the upper floors in any facility. This is usually where they "hide" residents that they do not want the public to see. So, if you are visiting and evaluating a nursing home or a physical rehabilitation center, make sure to see the upper floors. You can find a staff person to give the tour.
By listening, you will get the most important information about the place that you will need. As you walk by someone who is walking in the hallways , you might "hear" that a resident was missing for a while, or that a resident walked out of the facility, or that a resident keeps trying to leave the nursing home or physical rehabilitation center. Listen carefully. You will learn about the facility, about the residents, doctors and everything related to staying in that facility.
You might go online and find some nursing home blogs that are not affiliated with the nursing homes (sometimes residents and patients can do some blogs in some nursing homes). You can join in there and do some observations, and perhaps, who knows, perhaps you can start a residents or patients group online.
Whatever you do, your key are these things:
- Listen.
- Hear.
- Observe.
- Note.
- Observe more and again.
- Listen more carefully.
- Connect.
- Stay connected.
Doing these things and making these your first priority when choosing a rehabilitation center or nursing home, will give you the best advantage and will give you good choices.So, this article has listed and explained some of the best things that you can do to make sure that your choice of nursing homes or rehabilitation centers are best. But also, this article and all the ideas inside this article are equally important AFTER you have made the choice and after you have already gone through the admission process. Always keep your ears and eyes open. You can't go wrong by doing that. Warning Signs:
There are some warning signs that you should be leery of if you happen to see them or experience them in any physical rehabilitation and care centers and nursing homes. These are some of the warning signs:
- Filth -- Is there dirty clothing all around on the floors or in the hallway? Are the floors sticky or dirty? Does the room or corridor smell or have nasty odors?
- Overcrowding -- Do you see wheelchair after wheelchair after wheelchair - waiting for long periods of time to get upstairs or downstairs on the elevators? Are the rooms overcrowded ? Is the rehab center or nursing home overcrowded? What do the fire regulations say?
- Noise Pollution -- Is there loud music playing all the time? (Is this a cover-up for the "noises" that the staff doesn't want you to hear)?
- Lost Clothing - Losing clothing is one thing, but are you in a facility that constantly loses most of your clothing? Are residents and patients in the long-term units constantly wearing other people's clothing? Are there residents or patients lying naked or half-naked in their beds due to lost clothing? These are huge red-flags for you to look for.
- Oppression - Do the residents seem frightened or scared? Are the residents afraid to complain about anything? Or when they do complain are they ignored as if they are invisible or are they punished for complaining? Are family members punished for complaining?
- Staff who is never "available" but they suggest that you "ask someone else" , then you are given the run-around. Huge red-flag here.
- Inadequate smoke alarms, and inadequate fire drill preparations and lack of emergency evacuation instructions.
- Mislabeling of important things in the facility. (This will be explained in another article).
Most places are not like these (listed above) but we still need to be aware so that we can distinguish the good from the bad. So keep your ears and eyes open , always and spread the word!
There are so many other ways to almost guarantee a pleasant stay at a nursing home or physical rehabilitation center, but this is just a beginning.
Update: Recently I have been able to visit a nursing home center that is a nice place for humans to stay. This nursing home is in Brooklyn, NY. The difference between this one and the other one is like night and day . It gives everyone hope knowing that there are some places where life goes on the way it should. There are some places that have professionals workers and that have enough so that each resident and patient are treated with respect, and good care.
When you visit nursing homes or rehab centers -to inspect them, make sure you see the long-term floors and the floors where people actually are living in . Listen to your inner instincts. If something is telling you that something is wrong; you are most likely correct and something is wrong. Do what is best and right for you.
The nursing home and care center that gave me nightmares (due to conditions and due to how residents are treated and taken care of) is in Staten Island, New York. I still have nightmares sometimes over what I saw inside of that nursing home. I hope that no one has to go there ever. If I had a pet that needed care, I would not send that pet to the home in Staten Island. The nightmares were relentless and they are finally letting up.
UPDATE: Sometimes it seems as if it is very hard to get out of a nursing home. It seems that way because it is that way. There is so much red tape and so much paperwork and pre-discharge items to handle. If you are in a nursing home and have no family and friends to visit you, you will find that the red tape is doubled and you will find yourself that you might feel like you are a prisoner in that home. Try and seek outside help. Write a letter to your assemblyman or congressman if you are feeling that you are being held against your will at any medical facility or rehabilitation and care center.
Updated May 04, 2008
No comments:
Post a Comment