Nursing Home Lawyer & Attorney : Stark & Stark Law Firm : Elder Care, Senior Care

The centers for Medicaid and Medicare have put together a wonderful step-by-step guide to choosing a nursing home. It is highly recommended reading for anyone contemplating entering or putting a loved one in a nursing home.  It addresses everything from individual nursing home comparisons to costs associated with care, resident rights, and who to call in the event neglect or abuse occurs. If you are trying to decide on a nursing home, do yourself a favor and review this material. Being well informed is the best way to prevent neglect and abuse. Good luck!

Click here for the Step-by-Step Guide.

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I recently returned from Austin, after attending a national nursing home conference for the American Association for Justice. While my talk involved the topic of more focused deposition taking, I must say that I was truly impressed by the effort and dedication of all of the other speakers. I am continually impressed by the level of dedication all of the attorneys I meet at these national conferences have toward protecting the elderly and infirm from abuse and neglect. One of the themes echoed through all of the talks was that of our common mission in improving the quality of care for nursing home residents all across the country.

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Here is an article I recently read, which outlines not only allegations of abuse, but also retaliation against a whistle blower who reported the abuse. The article contains helpful links for families looking to research nursing homes.

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I recently found a great website for families looking to investigate nursing homes.  The website offers a list of nursing home throughout the country that are in danger of harming it's residents. The site breaks down the potentially harmful home into three categories:

- a red code equals actual harm and/or immediate jeopardy
- a yellow code equals the potential for more than minimal harm
- a blue code equals the potential for minimal harm

In this link, there exist some significant problems at a facility known as Plaza Regency at Park Ridge, in Park Ridge, New Jersey.  I strongly urge our Blog readers to explore this helpful site.

You can access the website here.

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Nursing Home Report Card
Report card based on Medicare- and Medicaid-certified nursing home inspections and complaint investigations over a two-year period. Measures nursing home compliance with 50 federal quality standards in the areas of nursing care, resident rights, food service, environment and administration. Report card is updated monthly.

Selecting a Long-Term Care Setting
This guide walks consumers through the process of choosing a nursing home for a loved one. Includes a useful visit checklist to help evaluate facilities. The guide describes long-term care options, costs, reviewing inspection reports, and the importance of advocating for loved ones in long-term care.

A Guide to Community-Based Long Term Care in New Jersey
This guide helps older adults plan for their future financial, health and housing needs. The guide describes programs that provide medical, financial, legal, and social service assistance. It also includes consumer checklists and helpful resources for those seeking help for themselves, a family member or friend.

Nursing Home Compare - U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
A federal database that allows searches of Medicare- and Medicaid-certified nursing homes by state, county, city, zip code and name. Provides detailed information on facility ownership, number of beds, staffing levels, performance on quality-of-care measures, and track record in recent inspections.

The NJ Department of Health and Senior Services offers a great deal of information about NJ nursing homes. For more information go to www.state.nj.us

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The NJ Department of Health and Senior Services offers a great deal of information about NJ nursing homes. You can log onto their website for more information.

The mission of the Division is to ensure that New Jersey citizens receive quality health care at appropriate levels of care in regulated facilities. To accomplish this, the division:

• Regulates a wide range of health care settings for quality of care, such as hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living residences, ambulatory care centers, home health care, medical day care and others (complete list).
• Investigates complaints received from consumers and other state and federal agencies.
• Licenses Nursing Home and certifies Assisted Living Administrators.
• Certifies Nurse Aides, including performing background checks.
• Provides consumer information in the form of report cards and other performance information

   

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For thirty years, the National Citizens’ Coalition for Nursing Home Reform has expressed its continuing commitment to protecting and ensuring the safety and well being of nursing home residents across the country. The workers at NCCNHR are tireless in their works to ensure, through a number of different fronts, that nursing home residents receive the highest level of care and treatment. For those visitors to our blog who have an interest, membership to NCCNHR is available to anyone who wishes to do so. I would strongly recommend, for purposes of both edification and involvement, a visit to the NCCNHR website.

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The fourth annual Patient Safety in American Hospitals Study was released recently, and contains very insightful information for patients and their families when choosing a hospital. Safety in hospitals has recently become an overwhelming concern due to the rise of injuries suffered to patients during their hospital stays.

Often times this process can be quite daunting and somewhat confusing if you are not familiar with the all of the available resources provided to assist you. The study provides patient safety incident rates and associated mortality among Medicare beneficiaries, gives an overall patient safety indicator hospital performance assessment, and provides a list of the best-performing hospitals for overall patient safety across the country.

You can read the full April 2007 report here.

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In choosing a nursing home in the State of New Jersey it is advisable that you go to the State of New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services website. There you will find a New Jersey report card for nursing homes. Each year, the Department conducts approximately 400 complete on-site licensure and Medicare/Medicaid certification inspections called "surveys", of nursing homes. These surveys are unannounced and are done during one three to seven day period every nine to fifteen months for each facility. They serve to evaluate the quality of care and services provided, as well as the appropriateness of the facility’s building, equipment, staffing, policies, procedures and finances. They are a "snapshot" of the facilities performance at the point in time when the survey is conducted.

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A very significant portion of nursing home residents across the nation suffer from Alzheimer’s disease, which can take its toll on the caregivers. There are many local support groups who can help both caregivers and concerned family members deal with this disease. For more information, the National Information on Aging maintains a very helpful and informative website. Included in the website are a number of publications, news events and opportunities for volunteers to assist with research.

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Protecting the rights, safety and dignity of your loved one who is about to enter or who has been living in a nursing home is not always easily done. Publications exist that can benefit you greatly in understanding precisely what rights, safety and dignity issues exist at nursing homes. The following is a list of books and videos that can help answer many questions.

1. Nursing Homes: Getting Good Care There
Second Edition
Author: Sarah Greene Burger, Barbara Frank, Virginia Fraser and Sara Hunt

2. Nursing Home Staffing: A Guide for Residents, Families, Friends and Caregivers
Author: Sarah Greene Burger

3. Strength in Numbers: The Importance of Family Councils in Nursing Homes
Video developed by National Citizens’ Coalition for Nursing Home Reform
(NCCNHR)

4. 24/7: Residents’ Rights Around the Clock
Residents’ Rights Packet 2003
Developed by Julie Meashey, MAG

5. Giving Voice to Quality: Affirming Residents’ Rights in Long Term Care
Residents’ Rights Packet 2002
Developed by Julie Meashey, MAG

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