Need to find a high-quality nursing home in North Carolina? Here are some tips
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Care, change & coming to terms
One family became TikTok stars. Another is paving caregiving as a two-way street. This Charlotte Observer series gives an inside look at what it’s like to care for aging parents.
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A nationwide struggle to hire and retain caregivers is causing North Carolina nursing homes to reach a crisis point — a trend that endangers thousands of residents, our investigation has found. An influx of for-profit nursing homes and fewer regulations during the pandemic are compounding the crisis. So what should families do to protect their loved ones?
- Part 1: ‘People can die.’ Staffing crisis endangers thousands inside NC nursing homes
- Part 2: Do some for-profit NC nursing homes cut corners on staffing and quality?
- Part 3: Need to find a high-quality nursing home in North Carolina? Here are some tips
- Part 4: At the worst time, North Carolina nursing home residents lost key protections
- Part 5: She didn’t have to die, her son says. Was short-staffed nursing home to blame?
- Part 6: Troubled NC nursing home failed to protect residents from abuse, investigation finds
- Part 7: ‘You just can’t give good care.’ Nursing home aides struggle with daunting caseloads
- Part 8: ‘Outside the box’ solutions helped this nursing home excel, despite staffing challenges
- Tell us your thoughts: What have you experienced or witnessed inside NC nursing homes?
Start at your computer
Using Medicare’s Nursing Home Compare site, you can see how each nursing home in your area stacks up on key metrics — staffing, quality measures and health inspections.
In the location box, plug in your zip code. In the “provider type” box, select “nursing homes.” Then hit the search button to find nursing homes in your area.
The “overall rating” five-star rating system gives a quick overview. But don’t stop there.
Click on the box that says “view staffing information” and you can see how a particular nursing home compares to state and national averages on key staffing indicators: the total number of nurse staff hours per resident per day and the total registered nurse hours per resident per day.
To put those numbers in context: In 2001, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a report recommending that nursing homes provide at least 4.1 hours of nursing staff time per resident per day. Only about one in five North Carolina nursing homes meet that standard, according to the latest data.
Click on the “View Quality Measures” box, and you can see how each nursing home compares to national averages in the care provided to both long-term residents and short-term residents. You’ll find a host of indicators there, including the percentage of residents with pressure ulcers and urinary tract infections.,
Click on the “View Inspection Results” box, and you’ll be able to see the total number of recent citations of each nursing home and read the reports from recent state inspections.
Visit nursing homes
To get a thorough feel for a particular nursing home, you’ll need to visit.
Medicare has put together this “nursing home checklist” to help you know what to look for and what questions to ask when you visit nursing homes. The AARP has also put together a similar “caregiving checklist.”
Don’t be overly swayed by a nursing home’s decor. Instead, look deeper. Among the AARP’s recommended questions: Do staff members respond quickly to calls for help? Do they interact closely with residents and know their names? Are residents bathed and well groomed? Do they have the same caregivers on a daily basis?
The National Institute on Aging has put together additional tips to help people find the right nursing home. Among their recommendations: “Make a second visit without calling ahead. Try another day of the week or time of day so you will meet other staff members and see different activities. Stop by at mealtime. Is the dining room attractive and clean? Does the food look tempting?”
And keep in mind: It’s best to look for nursing homes located near the prospective resident’s family and friends. That way, they can keep a close eye on their loved one, and bring problems to the attention of staff members.
Other useful sites
ProPublica’s Nursing Home Inspect provides detailed data on nursing homes, including the unredacted portions of government reports. The site also puts rankings in perspective.
The AARP’s guide to finding a nursing home advises people not to rush their decision about where to send a loved one for nursing home care.
A guide from the Health in Aging Foundation advises people to make frequent visits to their loved ones once they’ve been placed in nursing home care. Stop by the nursing station on each visit, the guide advises, to ask about any changes in medications, diet, behavior, sleep or exercise.
This story was originally published March 27, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
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