Southern California Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer Blog
When you are helping an elderly parent or loved one to find a nursing home in Orange County or elsewhere in Southern California, the process of searching for a safe facility can be daunting. While nursing home rating systems exist, recent reports suggest that those ratings may not provide a full or accurate picture of safety violations at those facilities or actual staff-patient ratios. Information about safety violations can be more difficult to locate since that information is not easily obtained through a central repository, depending upon the location of the facility and other factors. How, then, can you identify a safe nursing home in Orange County?
It is critical to keep in mind that any nursing home can be a site of nursing home abuse or neglect. Even facilities that have no histories of negligence can be the subject of a future investigation. Thus it is nearly impossible to know with absolute certainty that a facility is safe. However, there are certain factors you can look for in a facility to have more confidence in its treatment of and care for residents. Our Orange County nursing home abuse attorneys want to provide you with tips for choosing a facility.
Transparency in Policies
Better nursing homes tend to be transparent with their practices and policies, while problematic facilities will often attempt to obscure information from family members, friends, and even residents.
Provides Clear Answers to Questions
Speaking of transparency, quality nursing homes should be able to provide clear and direct answers to questions from a resident or a family member concerning health, care, and safety.
Relatively Low Turnover Rate
Nursing homes with high turnover rates tend to have a problem retaining staff members for reasons that concern the facility’s management, supervisions, or other problematic practices. Accordingly, a low turnover rate may suggest that staff members are satisfied with their jobs, which is more likely to make them better caregivers for residents at the facility.
Detailed Staffing Information
You should find a nursing home that has detailed information about its staffing numbers.
Regular Cleaning Procedures and General Appearance of Quality Care
Nursing homes that provide quality care to residents are clean, and residents appear to be physically well cared for. While physical appearances certainly are not everything—and many signs of abuse do not appear in physical form—signs of an unclean facility or unkempt residents should be a warning sign.
High Rate of COVID-19 Vaccination and Low Infection Rate
While most families in Southern California could not have imagined that they would need to think carefully about COVID-19 vaccinations when considering nursing homes for an elderly parent, a recent article in U.S. News & World Report emphasizes that nursing homes at this point that are providing quality care should have a high rate of COVID-19 vaccinations and a low infection rate. Health care workers at nursing homes receiving funding from CMS are required by law to be vaccinated against COVID-19, so a lack of vaccination should be concerning.
Contact an Orange County Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer Who Can Help
If you have any concerns about safety in a nursing home or assisted living facility, you should seek advice from an Orange County nursing home abuse attorney as soon as you can. Contact the Walton Law Firm for more information about identifying nursing home abuse or neglect, as well as negligent safety violations.
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