Crime and Safety:
Seniors > Medicaid Fraud & Elderly Abuse > Choosing A Long Term Care Facility
Here are tips for seniors and family members who are searching for the best long-term care facility:
- Visit the facility and meet the administrator. Ask to see the facility’s license to operate. Arkansas requires that nursing home facilities be licensed.
- Review the Office of Long-Term Care’s latest survey report on the performance of the nursing home. The survey report is required to be posted at the nursing home and is also available from the Office of Long-Term Care.
- Contact your local long-term care ombudsman for information about a particular facility. Has the ombudsman received complaints about it? What was the nature of the complaints? What did the nursing home do to correct the problem?
- Inquire about the available services—recreational, rehabilitative, dietary and medical.
- Visit the facility more than once and at different times of the day. Visit during mealtime. How does the food look? Are hot foods hot? Cold dishes cold? Would you want to eat the meal? Visit during activity periods. Also visit at nights and on the weekends.
- Look at the patients. Do they appear clean and well cared for? Talk to them. What is their opinion of the facility? How is their morale?
- Talk to the staff. Do they display a caring attitude toward the patients? How do they feel about their job?
- Check the surroundings. Does the facility look and smell clean and fresh? Are the furnishings attractive?
Once you have found the right long-term care facility for a relative or friend, it’s important that you monitor the care they are receiving.
- Visit your friend or relative often.
- Do they appear to be receiving quality care?
- Are they satisfied with the care they are receiving?
- Do they have complaints? If so, listen to them.
- If the elderly person needs your help in bringing complaints to the attention of the facility staff or administrator, assist them.
- If you are unable to resolve a complaint to the elderly person’s or to your own satisfaction, contact your local long-term care ombudsman or the Office of Long-Term Care.
- If you suspect abuse is occurring in a long-term care facility, immediately contact your local long-term care ombudsman, the Office of Long-Term Care, a local law enforcement agency or the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit of the Office of Attorney General.
