Nursing Home Evaluation
I am seeking to find a home for my 76 year old Grandfather Leroy. It is becoming increasingly difficult for him to take care of himself and no family members are available to take care of him as it is becoming a full time job. He was diagnosed with colon cancer a few years back and his disease, in conjunction with chemotherapy, has taken away his capacity to care for himself. He was also recently diagnosed with Parkinson¡¯s disease. The name of the Nursing home that I chose to evaluate is the Lakeview Nursing Center.
This facility on the outside appears to be well maintained. It is composed of brick and is set in a good neighborhood. Upon entering the facility, the first thing I noticed was the pleasant odor that it had. I had been to nursing homes in the past and could recall how they stank mostly of urine and waste. This facility smelled fresh and clean. Cleanliness is a great attribute for a home that features 180 beds.
This home offers care to those with Parkinson¡¯s disease, recent stroke victims, as well as Respiratory, Hospice and Respite care. Not all of the residents of this home suffer from any of these diseases, or require special care, but care is available to these particular patients should it be applicable.
The first question that I asked Nurse Egan was what she thought was the best part about working for Lakeview. She told me that one of the better things about working here is that many of the residents of this home are from or have family living in the Lincoln Park Area. Living in such close proximity to loved ones in a nursing home promotes more frequent visitation from family members. She tells me that typically the happiest residents are the ones that have the most friends and family visiting them. Frequent interaction with loved ones as well as living in a positive environment like the one at Lakeview leads to satisfied residents. When she finished giving me her answer, I decided to put what she had to say to the test. So I decided to simply walk through the corridor and see if the residents seemed happy or not.
The first room that I passed by had two older gentlemen playing chess. I knocked on the door and identified myself as a curious college student that wanted to ask them a few questions. Kenneth and John eagerly invited me in and immediately offered me something to dri...
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... taken with his family and displayed for all too see.
I have been to other nursing homes in the past and found them to be unsanitary and downright boring to be in. This nursing home is extremely clean and welcoming as far as nursing homes. While I don¡¯t think that someone would choose to live in a nursing home, if they had to, this home would prove sufficient. The impact of this assignment was greater that expected. I expected to walk into a stench-laden home with old people gathered around a television. Rather I found a clean home with older residents engaged in social situations with both the help and each other. While nobody wants to send my grandfather to a home, it is something that needs to be done. This home could adequately provide for his health care needs as well as expose him to a socially productive and enriching environment. I feel that most importantly the family must uphold their end of the bargain if they are to put a loved one in a home. They must frequently visit their resident and show them that they are missed and loved every bit as much as they were when they weren¡¯t in a home. My family will visit Grandpa as often as when he lived in his apartment.
Moss, A. J. et al. Design and operation of the 2010 National Survey of Residential Care Facilities. Vital Health Stat. 1. 1–131 (2011). at
Long-term care (LTC) covers a wide range of clinical and social services for those who need assistance due to functional limitations. These limitations usually result from complications associated with age related chronic conditions, from disabilities related to birth defects, brain damage, or mental retardation in children; or from major illnesses or injuries suffered by adults (Shi L. & Singh D.A., 2011). LTC encompasses a variety of services including traditional clinical services, social services and housing. Unlike acute care, long-term care is much more complicated and has objectives that are much harder to measure. Acute care mainly focuses on returning patients to their previous functional level and is primarily provided by specialty providers. However, LTC mainly focuses on preventing the physical and mental deterioration of an individual and promoting social adjustments to suit the different stages of decline. In addition the providers of LTC are more diverse than those in acute care and is offered in both formal and informal settings, which include: hospitals, physicians, home care, adult day care, nursing home care, assisted living and even informal caregivers such as friends and family members. Long-term care services have been dominated by community based services, which include informal care (86%, about 10 to 11 million) and formal institutional care delivered in nursing facilities (14%, 1.6 million) (McCall, 2001). Of more than the 10 million Americans estimated to require LTC services, 58% are elderly and 42% are under the age of 65 (Shi L. & Singh D.A., 2011). The users of LTC are either frail elderly or disabled and because of the specific care needs of this population, the care varies based on an indiv...
care to the residents suffering from dementia. Banner et al (2009 as cited in Lee J.et al.2012)
Nursing homes initial purpose was to provide care to the aging population in a home-like environment. With the creation of social security, the elderly had the opportunity to be taken care of and supported through the healthcare system. Ultimately turning nursing homes into a hospital setting. Now people are mostly thought of as patients and their disease first rather than human beings. Basic needs are meet such as shelter, food, and medication, but interpersonal human needs have been lost. Covering the cost of medications which sometimes numbs a persona are far easier, than personal music which could help retain a person’s sense of
It is a well-known fact most Americans seniors would prefer to age in their own homes instead of moving into senior living communities. Meeting seniors where they are is a trend that will most likely affect assisted living facilites in the future. One of the main focuses from providers is being patient centerd. Meaning working with the patient to ensure that the best possible care is given. Providers are working with patients and offereing more services within their homes. Another trend that we will see in assisted living facilites is a competive pressure. According to the National Investment Center for Senior Housing and Care, competition housing is an increasing trend that is affecting living situtions for the elderly
Dementia is the loss of a person’s mental skills from their daily routines. The symptoms of dementia could easily be over looked, they include forgetting things, daily routines are hard to complete, misplacing things, depression, aggravation and aggression, emotion are high, even feeling like someone is a threat to their life (Web MD,2012). Caring for someone with dementia can be difficult if with resources like healthcare, living facilities, nursing homes and medicine is involved, but sometimes healthcare and facilities do not provide the proper care. This disease is very common in the elderly community past the age of sixty-five. Finding out that a loved
With over 1.5 million elderly and dependent adults now living in nursing homes throughout the country, abuse and neglect has become a widespread problem. Even though some nursing homes provide good care, many are subjecting helpless residents to needless suffering and death. Most residents in nursing homes are dependent on the staff for most or all their needs such as food, water, medicine, toileting, grooming- almost all their daily care. Unfortunately, many residents in nursing homes today are starved, dehydrated, over-medicated, and suffer painful pressure sores. They are often isolated, ignored and deprived of social contact and stimulation. Because of insufficient and poorly trained staff commonly found in nursing homes. Care givers are often overworked and grossly underpaid that often results in rude and abusive behavior to vulnerable residents who beg them for simple needs such as water or to be taken to the bathroom.
For the purposes of this paper, I focused on a freestanding facility that has a portion of its services devoted to hospice care – Signature Hospice, Home Health, Home Care. Signature Hospice is headquartered in Wilsonville, OR, but has locations in not only Oregon, but Washington, Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming. (Signature Hospice, Home Health, Home Care, 2017). For this research paper, I interviewed Megan Resetar, Administrator, and Amber Sekreta, Volunteer Coordinator, from the home office in
...n-Greener, H., Spector, W. D., Veazie, P., & Mukamel, D. B. (2013). Making Difficult Decisions: The Role of Quality of Care in Choosing a Nursing Home. American Journal Of Public Health, 103(5), e1-e7.
With the aging population growing faster every year many families must make a difficult decision whether their loved ones should live in assisted living or nursing home facilities. I can relate because I made the decision to care for my mother at my home. Some people do not have the money or resources to care for their parent so they must live in a facility for health and safety reasons.
During these calls and visits, people should ask their family members how they are doing, and ensure that their needs are being met. Additionally, it is helpful for people to vary the days and times when they visit. This may help ensure that nursing home staff are not able to take steps to hide signs that they have abused a resident. By staying involved in their loved ones’ care, people may help prevent nursing home abuse from occurring at all, or identify potential problems right
Long term care facilities are for patients looking for 24 hour care, these are sometimes referred to as nursing homes. Providing safety and quality of life with nursing as well as endless supervision. Long term care facilities are held through profit or non profit organizations. Long-term care facilitates are generally classified by ownership: Proprietary (for profit) meaning owned by individual or corporation and run for profit. Religious, meaning owned and operated by a religious organization, lay/charitable meaning owned and operated by a voluntary, non governmental and non religious body. (non profit). And others would be municipal, regional, provincial and federal. “Ontario carries 17% For profit facilitates, 46% government owned, 18% not for profit, and 19% Religious facilities for long term care. That is a 48.4% rate of not for profit homes with a 51.6% rates of profit organizations” (Banerjee, An Overview of Long-Term Care in Canada and Selected Provinces and Territories). Through the whole of this research paper, the terms will be grouped looking through for profit facilities and not for profit facilities of Ontario. This paper also has the intention to promote the need for maximizing priorities in long term care facilities as they lack the funds needed to fully produce the mission of quality. “Take away the public relations spin and it is clear that even the for-profit association admits that cutting on food and staff costs, and charging higher fees is the practice to maximize profit taking from the homes. Conversely, municipalities are pouring funding into the operational budgets of the facilities to improve care. Non-profits fundraise to provide activities and amenities. They act ...
In-home non-medical supportive services and personal care, advanced aging and disabled care solutions, advocacy and caregiving; the preferred alternative to out-of-home care
"Who does a son turn to, when his 78 year-old mother, newly admitted to a nursing home’s rehab unit, is experiencing delusions and screams through the night? Or where does a daughter turn to for help when she notices a rapid decline in her mother’s health and her mother refuses to seek medical care? Or the gentleman who believes it is time to a continuing care retirement community, but has no one to advise him on the myriad of financial and lifestyle implications of such a move? (Lederman, 2012)." Within in the field of home health care, ecological system creates an outline for defining what it means to provide quality care to the elderly.
Since summer I have volunteered at his nursing home because I saw how lonely some of the residents were. I volunteered two days a week during the summer, which I have continued. I have learned many things about nursing homes and the factors to consider when choosing one, including the residents' quality of life, the care received, the environment surrounding them, and the nursing home's payment policy.