Re: Nursing Facility Inspections/Gwen

[Guest guest]

Hi Gwen,

I did not spend the $1,000.00 + dollars to get the

list of facilities. I spent that much to see how I

could gain the DPOA to care for my husband over his

kids and I met with 4 attorneys all specializing in

Elder Care, but there is nothing I can do, since it is

all stated in his Living Trust and I can't change it.

He made the Living Trust when he was in better health

mentally and knew what he was doing or so he thought.

One of the attorneys that specializes in MediCal or

Medicaid gave me a list of facilities in our area and

she knew of which were being sued or had a bad name

and she put stars next to the names of those that are

in good standing. I also called the Ombudsman for a

list of those not in good standing and I shopped for 4

months looking at all the facilities and I picked the

ones that I believe to be the best in the area where I

live, so I do not feel badly about leaving my husband

in the facility where he will be. I will miss him

terribly and that is my worst experience at this time

is the knowing that in only a few months, I will not

have his presence with me anymore. But I know of

families that have their LOs in 2 of the possible

facilities where Jim will be staying and they are

very happy with the facilities. I have put a lot of

thought into looking for a place for Jim. It has been

many months of looking, but I feel I put the time in

to find what I think will be a good place for him. I

put his name into a waiting list of 4 facilities and

I feel comfortable with any one of them. I do believe

I have found him the safest most nurturing facilities

with dementia in our area for him.

Thanks again, Jan

--- breathedeepnow wrote:

> I missed this, apparently:

>

> " They list all nursing homes and their last 3

> medicare inspections,

> what areas had problems and what questions to ask

> when visiting. By

> the way, when visiting facilities they are supposed

> to have

> inspection info available - if not posted then by

> request. I believe

> that also the state and county do their own

> inspections. "

>

> Don't be fooled. If such inspections are announced,

> they are next to

> worthless. Several times when I was in the hospital

> for depression,

> it was announced DAYS IN ADVANCE that someone was

> coming around to

> inspect, so of course EVERYONE had plenty of time to

> get everything

> looking fine.

>

> And even IF there was an unannounced inspection, I

> expect that just

> as soon as someone recognized there was an inspector

> in the place,

> word would get out to absolutely everyone, and as

> much as possible

> would be corrected/covered-up/put out of sight.

>

> The only way to get a real and proper inspection of

> institutions is

> to have inspectors sign in and pose as residents for

> a week or more.

>

> There was an article in Science Magazine in the

> 1970's about a group

> of psychologists and psychology students who faked

> mental illness and

> were put in various mental hospitals. As soon as

> they were all signed

> into the places, they reverted to normal behavior.

> The ONLY people

> who recognized that they were normal were the

> clients(I don't use the

> word " patient. " )The staff had no idea and couldn't

> have cared less.

> Some of the psychologists/students spent a full 30

> days in the

> hospital! I think the minimum was two weeks. What is

> more, the

> doctors, who supposedly were best at helping clients

> get better,

> spent the very least amount of time with the

> clients. The nurses

> spent the next least, and the ones who spent the

> MOST time with the

> clients were the " psych techs, " who knew LEAST about

> how to help the

> clients get better. Was anything learned from this

> experiment? Did

> anything change? No, not at all.

>

> Anyway, bottom line: Don't depend on official

> inspections of nursing

> facilities to tell you what you need to know about

> putting your loved

> one there. Depend on YOUR OWN inspection, and on

> inside information

> from people who have worked there and seen what goes

> on.

>

> Elliot

>

>

>

>

> > Hi Jan,

> >

> > Oh my, I hope that you didn't have to pay that to

> get a list of

> nursing

> > homes which should be public from the state or

> county (although the

> one I

> > got was out of date). That was one thing that

> prompted me to get a

> > computer. The first thing that I did was to check

> the Medicare

> nursing home

> > compare web site.

> > http://www.medicare.gov/nhcompare/

> >

> > They list all nursing homes and their last 3

> medicare inspections,

> what

> > areas had problems and what questions to ask when

> visiting. By the

> way,

> > when visiting facilities they are supposed to have

> inspection info

> available

> > - if not posted then by request. I believe that

> also the state and

> county

> > do their own inspections. There is also an

> ombudsperson for state

> and/or

> > county to whom someone can report problems with a

> facility. The

> web site

> > also has a basic list of questions that people can

> use for visits.

> >

> > One of the areas that needed improvement for

> almost all of the

> facilities

> > that I was looking at was an emergency evacuation

> plan - both in

> place and

> > employees trained so that it could be implemented.

> This was in NY

> about a

> > year after 9/11. There had also been a nh fire in

> Connecticut that

> killed a

> > number of people. I think I remember hearing that

> they didn't have

> an

> > emergency plan.

> > Even with all the information that we can get

> these days it is

> still not

> > easy trying to find a place that we think will be

> a safe to leave

> our LO.

> > Good luck with finding a safe facility for Jim.

> >

> > Gwen

> >

> >

> > >From: Janet Colello <janetcolello@y...>

> > >Reply-To: LBDcaregivers

> > >To: LBDcaregivers

> > >Subject: Re: Re Jan..Facing a

> " Home " or facility

> > >situation--possibilities for how to choose-

> > >Date: Sun, 2 Oct 2005 20:30:20 -0700 (PDT)

> > >

> > >Thank you Elliot for your guidance on how to find

> a

> > >good facility. I spent over a thousand dollars

> to

> > >see 4 Elder Care Attorneys. One gave me a list of

> > >places that were MediCal/Medicaid Certified and

> > >Medicare Approved. California has MediCal, which

> is

> > >Medicaid in other states. She crossed off all the

> > >facilities that she knew were not in good

> standing and

> > >put a star next to those that have excellent

> reviews.

> > >I went facility shopping for 4 months and dropped

> > >Jim's name into a waiting list of 4 places that I

> > >chose. I did as you have suggested and made

> surprise

> > >visits taking in all that I saw and a list a

> mile

> > >long of questions. And one that I find very

> important

> > >now if you live in a disaster area since all of

> the

> > >hurricanes, is their safety evacuation plan and

> their

> > >emergency plans. Surprisingly, I ran into one

> that had

> > >no real organized plan in the event of an

> earthquake,

> > >but the person I talked to was kind of flakey,

> since I

> > >did not make an appointment for a tour and the

> actual

> > >director was not in, but still I felt this person

> > >represented the center. I also took as my guide

> of

> > >questions some I found on either Links or Files

> > >called, A Place for Mom, that gives a list of

> > >facilities in your area, and they gave a list of

> > >questions to ask on that site while facility

> > >searching.

> > >It has been a long drawn out process and although

> I

> > >will be sad when the time comes, I also will be

> > >relieved to have it all done and over with. Thank

> you

> > >again for your well thought out plan to find a

> decent

> > >facility................Jan

>

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