How to Choose a Nursing Home in California
OUR SANTA ROSA ATTORNEYS CAN HELP
Putting your loved one in an assisted living care facility is a stressful and difficult decision. You may have heard horror stories about nursing home abuse and neglect. Perhaps you have visited a few nursing homes, but don't know what to look for in a nursing home to make sure your loved will be treated with dignity and respect.
At The Law Offices of Freeman & Freeman, our Santa Rosa nursing home abuse lawyers have years of experience helping families whose loved ones have sustained injuries and abuse due to nursing home negligence. If your loved one suffered a nursing home injury, call (707) 575-7141 for a free initial consultation. We're ready to listen to you and discuss the best course of action.
Choosing the right nursing home ranks as one of the toughest decisions you make. While nursing home abuse and neglect is well documented among poorly-run facilities, even a highly-rated nursing home upon close inspection might not be the best fit for your loved one.
At The Law Offices of Freeman & Freeman, we hope the following tips can make the job of choosing a nursing home easier for you and your family:
- Check data about nursing homes in your area: At Medicare.gov, you can find a nursing home compare tool. You can examine information about staff, quality controls and health inspection results, among other criteria.
- Talk to other people: Your doctor or friends may be able to recommend a good nursing home and tell you what they think of a specific facility.
- Visit the home several times: Once you've narrowed down a list, check out the nursing home in person. Make sure to visit more than once and go during different times of the day. Your five senses will provide you with invaluable information about the nursing home. Look closely how clean and tidy the home is. Pay attention to how happy the residents are and the interactions they have with the staff members.
- Ask questions: Find out if the home provides “person-centered care,” which allows residents to wake up when they want to and create their own schedules, or if it provides “consistent assignment,” which means the same staff members treat the same patients each shift. Also ask about the staff turnover. If more than 50 percent of the staff members leave each year, you should probably consider a different home.
- Find out what types of activities are offered: Are there games such as bingo and movies offered on a regular basis? Try to find a home that offers activities that match your loved one's interests.
- Call a California nursing home ombudsman: This position was created to advocate for nursing home residents. The ombudsman can tell you about a facility's state ranking in addition to its Medicare rating.
Sonoma County Nursing Home Ratings & Safety Violation Information
The rates of injuries from nursing home patients around the country has gotten higher in recent years, and that trend does not look like it will be subsiding in the near future, even in Santa Rosa. That's why the associates at Freeman & Freeman have taken it on our own to conduct thorough research into fully understanding the nursing homes across Santa Rosa and Sonoma County. We will stop at nothing for any of our client's investigative needs, thus we are going to share the research we've conducted on Santa Rosa's nursing homes.
By utilizing our overview of nursing home ratings and safety violations, you and your loved ones can make an informed decision about where to re-locate an elderly family member if they're ready to make the transition into their first nursing home in Santa Rosa, or if your loved one is looking to re-locate themselves from a troubling experience at a nursing home.
This page will also delve into what we do, what we look for, signs of abuse and inferior care, how we can help and what to do if you suspect poor care. The information on this page will undoubtedly give you a much broader spectrum of information in terms of Santa Rosa's nursing homes, and ultimately could keep your loved ones out of abusive situations or help you navigate your options when nursing home abuse affects you and your family. Click here to read more about Sonoma County nursing home ratings and safety.
LEGAL REPRESENTATION ON YOUR SIDE
If your loved one suffered nursing home abuse or negligence, it's important to talk to an experienced California attorney. Contact us online or call (707) 575-7141. At The Law Offices of Freeman & Freeman, our nursing home attorneys are dedicated to helping families obtain the compensation they rightfully deserve.
Our team is ready to confidentially review your case for free.