Nursing Homes in the US

How To Choose the Right Nursing Home?

Choosing the right nursing home for your loved one is a daunting task. At Elder Guide, we try to streamline this process by giving you the tools necessary to begin your search. The best place to start when sizing up any nursing home is its overall grade. Ideally you want to target nursing homes that received an overall grade of B- or higher. The highest quality nursing homes typically receive overall grades of A- or higher. On the other end of the spectrum, we generally recommend avoiding facilities that received D’s or F’s no matter what.

We also rate each nursing home in four specific categories: inspections, long-term care, short- term care and nursing. For most people, the most important category is inspections. A nursing home’s grade in this category reflects the data we pulled from government inspections conducted at the facility. Poor grades in this category generally indicate that the nursing home was flagged for major deficiencies. More specifically, you want to avoid facilities that have been flagged for abuse or neglect or labeled as special focus facilities by the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”). You also want to be careful with facilities that received category G through L deficiencies as these deficiencies are associated with conditions that threatened the health or safety of residents. Category L deficiencies actually jeopardized residents’ lives or in some cases resulted in a death.

Depending on the level of care you are looking for, you also want to focus on our short-term and long-term care ratings. For prospective residents that recently suffered an injury or had a major surgery and are looking for rehabilitation, our short-term care grades are critical. Rehabilitation services rely on the performance of highly skilled nurses and therapists. Conversely, many of these skilled professionals are not critical for residents in a long-term care setting.

Long-term care residents are more likely to be in a nursing home for a chronic condition, often simply brought on by old age. These individuals tend to be more dependent on nurse’s aides for activities of daily living. As a result, they benefit more from sheer quantity of nursing care. If sufficient care is not provided on a 24/7 basis, these folks could be at risk for a variety of issues including pressure ulcers, falls, urinary tract infections and general neglect. Nursing performance is also measured more directly by our nursing category which is an important category for all prospective residents.

Finally, once you have zeroed in on the services your loved one requires, we highly recommend that you try out our nursing home staffing tool, which is available at the top of each nursing home’s page. This allows you to determine the levels of both medical and therapy staffing provided by the nursing home per resident over the past three years. This is a great way to determine whether a nursing home is truly the right fit based on your loved one’s specific needs. We truly hope you find a nursing home that cares for your loved one as thoroughly as you would care for them yourself.