List of Nursing Homes

Finding a List of Nursing Homes

When you are considering placing a family member in the care of a nursing home, finding a good facility can take some patience. Beginning with a list of nursing homes in your area can be a good start, but it can be a little more complicated than that. There are certain considerations you need to keep in mind when considering a certain facility.

A good place to start can be your local yellow pages assuming you still use a phone book. There should be a fairly complete list of local facilities with addresses and phone numbers for you to call. A quick search on the Web can also give you a good starting list as well as more detailed information, pictures and possibly even reviews from residents. You probably then want to consult the local state agencies to determine if any local nursing homes have had any disciplinary actions against them; this doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to drop that particular facility off your list, but it should raise a flag and prompt further investigation before making a final decision.

Things to Consider

For any nursing homes that you are considering, you want to tour each one in the day and at night if possible. If you are seriously considering a facility, you probably want to visit it several times to get a good feel for the staff and how the residents are treated. If a home on your list of nursing homes had a mark against it already, once you tour the facility you should be able to either mark it off your list of nursing homes completely or you may decide to keep it on your short list of homes, especially if you feel the facility has really cleaned up its act.

There are state and national rankings of local nursing homes, and that may help contribute to your decision. It is always possible that a facility with a great ranking is one that you just don’t like. If at all possible, you should make your own observations and not take the word of a state or national agency. After all, it is your relative who will be living there 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Ask yourself if you would want to spend every day in that facility possibly for the rest of your life and more importantly ask them i=how they feel about the home since they are the one that will be living there. Too often the senior is not asked or has no say in the matter and is treated like a child when it comes to making an important decision such as this.

Finding a list of nursing homes is easy. Deciding on which particular nursing home you will choose from that list of nursing homes is another matter. Touring the facilities and taking into consideration the overall reputation and input from official agencies can help narrow down your list of potential homes. Whichever facility you decide on, make sure you are completely comfortable with your final decision. A clean, cheerful facility that has happy, healthy residents can be a hard place to find, but it is out there.