How Can I Ensure Quality Care?

How to Ensure that Quality Nursing Home Care is Being Received

Quality care begins with the proper selection of a nursing facility for your loved one. Investigate potential facilities carefully. Use the resources of the IDPH website and other websites to investigate the past history of the nursing facility you are considering. For example, the IDPH website contains a page listing, “Quarterly Reports of Nursing Home Violators.” The reports available at that webpage go back over many years. Examining same would be a good first step in selecting a nursing home so as to avoid potential problems with inappropriate care. The IDPH provides information on selecting a nursing home or long-term care facility (see that heading on this website).

In order to insure quality care, it is important to visit your loved one often. Stagger your visiting hours and visit the nursing home at different times of the day. Ask other friends and family members to make visits and have them visit at different times of the day. Speak with those people after they visit your loved one in the nursing home. Ask for their observations regarding the care provided to the resident.

If you hold a Power of Attorney from the resident, or if you have been court-appointed as the resident’s guardian, insist upon reviewing the resident’s nursing home chart. Review the chart often and ask questions of the staff regarding the care provided to the resident.

In my personal experience, I have found that complaints and/or observations of care issues are often rectified if the person making the complaint is insistent that remedial action be taken. Frankly, the old adage “The squeaky wheel gets greased” certainly applies in the nursing home or long-term care facility setting.

If you believe your loved one has suffered injury as a consequence of nursing home abuse or neglect, the law firm of Noonan Perillo & Thut Ltd. is available to represent the resident with regard to his or her claim. Call Michael J. Perillo, Jr. at 847.244.0111 for a free consultation.