Important Questions to Ask When Choosing a Nursing Home

Elder care abuse is rampant nowadays, one of the reasons why people should choose a nursing home carefully. Mitzi McFatrich has been working on issues on long-term care and elder care abuse, and highly recommends crucial questions to ask when choosing a nursing home facility. Here are some questions that you should ask first in order to find the most fitting nursing home for you or for your loved ones:

1. Is the location realistic?
2. What do nursing home surveys show?

Questions to ask to Administrators and Nursing Directors:

1. Which services do you offer?
2. What are the staffing ratios?
3. How long do nurses and aides spend with residents each day?
4. What about staff turnover?
5. Can I see your staffing schedule?
6. How do you prevent pressure sores?
7. Are residents moved from room to room?
8. What if I run out of resources?
9. Do you provide special care for people with dementia?
10. Does staff have special training in dementia care? What does that training entail?
11. What about physical and chemical restraints?

To Dietitians:

1. What kind of food do you serve?
2. Do you accommodate special diets?
3. Can I have what they’re having?

To Residents:

1. Are you happy here?
2. Do you have freedom of choice?
3. When you ask for help, how long do you have to wait?

To Activity Directors:

1. What about activities?
2. Are more traditionally male activities included?
3. Is transportation available?
4. How reliable is the transportation?

Source: http://health.usnews.com/health-news/best-nursing-homes/articles/2015/03/05/crucial-questions-to-ask-when-youre-choosing-a-nursing-home

How to Protect against Infections in Nursing Homes

Residents of nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and other long-term care facilities need to be aware that even if they stay at the mentioned facilities, they are still as prone to infections as they are outside.

You become a resident to be taken care of and stay healthy during your late adulthood. However, residents are still vulnerable to getting infections in a facility while they are receiving care.

Imagine a scenario where you were diagnosed with an illness and will be staying at a long term care facility and start receiving care.

Thankfully, you are told that you’re going to recover, but will spend some time in the hospital. However, being in the hospital can also put you and other patients at risk for a healthcare-associated infection (HAI), such as a blood, surgical site, or urinary tract infection.

Remain Alert and Prepared

Every day, residents get certain degrees of infections in healthcare facilities while they are being treated for other conditions. These infections can have devastating emotional, financial, and medical effects. Worst of all, they can be lethal.

Healthcare procedures can leave you vulnerable to germs that cause HAIs. These germs can be spread in healthcare settings from patient to patient on unclean hands of healthcare personnel or through the improper use or reuse of equipment.

These infections are not limited to hospitals. For example, in the past 10 years alone, there have been more than 30 outbreaks of hepatitis B and hepatitis C in non-hospital healthcare settings such as outpatient clinics, dialysis centers, and long-term care facilities, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Preventive Measures are Necessary

As part of the care for residents of healthcare facilities, the following are recommended:

·         Be sure environmental services staff wear recommended personal protective equipment (PPE) to protect against direct skin and mucous membrane exposure of cleaning chemicals, contamination, and splashes or spatters during environmental cleaning and disinfection activities.

·         Use a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-registered hospital disinfectant with a label claim for a non-enveloped virus (e.g., norovirus, rotavirus, adenovirus, poliovirus) to disinfect environmental surfaces in rooms of patients with suspected or confirmed Ebola virus infection.

·         Avoid contamination of reusable porous surfaces that cannot be made single use.

·         Routine cleaning and disinfection of the PPE doffing area.

To reduce exposure among staff to potentially contaminated textiles (cloth products) while laundering, discard all linens, non-fluid-impermeable pillows or mattresses, and textile privacy curtains into the waste stream and disposed of appropriately.

Sources:

http://www.cdc.gov/HAI/patientSafety/patient-safety.html

http://www.cdc.gov/

http://www.ltcoptions.com/