Are you choosing a nursing home for yourself or a loved one? You need to be comfortable and knowledgeable. There are numerous websites to assist you.

The United States Department of Health and Human Services’ Medicare nursing home website is an excellent place to start your quest for knowledge. There, you will find a link called “Nursing Home Compare.” You can use this website to compare nursing home facilities in your area. You can also compare the quality of nursing homes you are considering. A “Nursing Home Checklist” is available if you are going to be visiting a facility.

In Idaho, you have additional choices for researching potential nursing homes. You can contact the Idaho Commission on Aging to help you in this most important decision. There you will find information about the Ombudsman program as well as a link to the Bureau of Facility Standards, where you can review results of surveys of long term care facilities in Idaho. A copy of the most recent survey results lists 84 facilities throughout Idaho. The survey includes complaints, violations discovered during inspections and a facility’s response to these things.

The "Nursing Home Checklist" is an excellent resource for when you go to various facilities to investigate which facility is the right one for you. For example, the beginning of the Checklist focuses you on whether the facility actually has the appropriate level of care you or your loved one requires. Remember, no matter how nice a facility or its staff is or appear to be, if the appropriate level of care (skilled nursing vs. custodial care) that facility is simply not the right one for you or your loved one. Choosing an inappropriate facility can lead to numerous problems, not the least of which is injury to you or your family member.