Importance of Touring a Nursing Home

“Caveat emptor" (Let the buyer beware)    July 2010

Like most people considering a major purchase such as a new home or a car you will spend a lot of time doing research before making a decision to buy one of these “big ticket” items. You also will never make a major purchase decision without first taking a very close look at what you are about to buy. For example, if you’re considering purchasing a home you would tour the property with a realtor before signing an offer to purchase it. Prior to a buying a car you would likely take a test drive and possibly review consumer reports before deciding to sign a sales contract. As you did with these types of purchases, it will also take you time to thoroughly research any nursing home you are considering prior to choosing it as either a rehabilitation or permanent destination for a loved one. Your research should include the following; personal/professional recommendations, touring the nursing home and online (internet) searches regarding the facility’s ability to deliver quality care.

Before selecting a nursing home or skilled nursing facility, the consumers approach to this type of purchase should be “buyer beware” just as you would with any other major purchase. With about 16,000 nursing homes/skilled nursing facilities in the U.S., be assured performances among them are not equal. Wide ranging operational differences exist in nursing homes which often determine how well a facility delivers care and treatment to residents.

When researching nursing homes, recommendations from family, friends, and medical professionals about the quality of a particular nursing home are valuable but only to the extent they will allow you to narrow your search from the vast many to a select few. If you hear negative comments about a nursing home from a family member, friends or medical professional then you will likely not spend any time considering them. Remember choosing a nursing home should never be solely based on a personal or professional recommendation alone.

Once you have zeroed in on the nursing homes you want to research further the next step is to schedule a tour to see the facility and ask questions regarding a number of important aspects. Better than scheduling a tour is to show up unannounced and request a tour. The unannounced visit may provide you with better insight into the facility’s operation and the staff’s interaction with residents as there will be no time for the facility to prepare for your visit.

Prior to the tour, you will want to prepare a set of questions and a list of items you want to look at while touring the facility. Using these questions with all the nursing homes you plan to visit will provide you an objective way to assess and compare one facility to another before you make a final decision.

What kind of questions should you ask and what items should you be looking at during the tour? Remember the individual who will be conducting the tour is a “sales person” and it’s their job to convince you their facility is the best. In any given geographical area there are probably a number of facilities competing for your business so “buyers beware” of the sales pitch. The list of questions you should ask during the tour will allow you to take some control of the sales process instead of just allowing the sales person to spoon-feed you all positives about the facility and not allow you to do your research. The list of items you want to judge by seeing them with your own eyes are objective observations which can only be achieved by doing an in-person tour.

They are many free internet resources regarding questions to ask when touring nursing homes. Most of these resources however fall short as the questions do not probe into the most important areas necessary for you to judge the quality of care provided by nursing homes. As the author of this blog and as a practicing Licensed Nursing Home Administrator, I have developed a unique “Tour Checklist” including the 10 important most important questions to ask during any nursing home tour. On the Sample Report page there are questions you will not find on any similar tool to evaluate the quality of nursing homes. By asking these questions during the tour, you will catch the sales person off guard and likely require them to consult other staff members to answer the questions. Using these questions will demonstrate to the sales person that you are a savvy consumer and this will put you more in control of the sales process.

This “Tour Checklist” combined with the comparative power of my websites “Quality Report” found at www.nursinghomenavigator.com will transfer my unique insight to you. Prepared with this information you will be able to objectively judge the quality of any nursing home or skilled nursing facility.

Please post your comments regarding this topic - Importance of Nursing Home Tours so other consumers may learn from your experiences when researching and choosing a nursing home or skilled nursing facility.