Nursing Homes Myths

Moving yourself or a family member to a nursing home is one of the hardest decisions you have to make as you age. The decision to move may arrive suddenly or gradually after hospitalization or as needs become more difficult to meet in other types of housing, it is still not easy choice.

To lessen the stress about making a decision, it is important to learn all you can about nursing homes so you can choose one that is right for you or your family member. Knowing the facts from the myths will help. With so many negative connotations attached to the “nursing homes” label, separating the myths from the truths can help ease some of your worries.

Most of the times, nursing homes are believed to be the only option for those who can’t take care of themselves at home. But this not completely true. Elderlies can also choose to stay at home because there a lot of services they can get help, ranging from help with laundry and shopping to caregiving and visiting home health services. Assisted living is also another option if staying at home is no longer possible. If the primary need of the older adult is custodial care rather than skilled medical care, assisted living can be an option.

Nursing homes are for those people whose families do not care about them. This is not true. Nursing homes are there for people whose families cannot provide the necessary care they need. Putting an older family older member in a nursing home where the family member’s needs are met is the responsible thing to do.

Nursing homes provide poor care. This is also a myth. Necessary information about the facility’s staffing and previous violations are available to the public. This will help you judge whether a nursing home provides poor care or not.

Lastly, you cannot leave a nursing home once you are in. This is only true if the care needed is necessary through the end of life. However, returning home or going to another housing option is possible if the care needed is only rehabilitative.

Nursing Homes Prevent Rehospitalization

Needless rehospitalization require Medicare a lot of money each year, and with many elderly people cycle from medical centers to assisted living facilities and back again, it’s critical for nursing homes to determine how to reduce readmissions. As many as 60% of these rehospitalization are avoidable, says Forbes, and they cost individuals huge amount of money yearly. Medical care change has put a large focus on medical centers cutting their readmission numbers, starting in October, their Medical health insurance payments will indicate their performance and it’s in nursing homes’ best interests to determine how they can help.

Nursing homes and their associate medical centers are taking action to cut these readmissions. Some of these projects are being motivated by new Insurance coverage policies. Among them: On Oct 1, Insurance coverage will begin decreasing expenses to medical centers where too many sufferers are readmitted within 30 days of release. While the preliminary charges are relatively moderate and for only three conditions: heart failure, pneumonia, and heart attacks, they will progressively restrict. And the new guidelines seem to have modified the attitude of many medical center directors. Increasingly, medical centers are enhancing discharges and maintaining a close eye on sufferers after they leave. No longer do they give up their sufferers once they move out the home. Many are placing transition programs in place, often using care professionals, social employees, or nurses, to assist sufferers who are released to go home. And gradually, they are starting to work more carefully with nursing facilities both experienced nursing and long-stay nursing homes to decrease readmissions.

Nursing home trade group, the American Health Care Association has pushed its members to decrease rehospitalization 15% by 2015, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has its own effort to decrease preventable hospitalizations from assisted living facilities by financing companies that partner with assisted living facilities to enhance on-site services and assistance to citizens and ensure a healthy, safe transition from the medical center.