The industry of retirement and long term care have become big business. The simple fact is that people are living longer but can't maintain their own home enviorment. There are many options that come into play ,usually the first choice families make is when they are in crisis, mom or dad has taken a fall or change in condition. They end up in the ER or hospital with the staff and social worker telling them mom or dad can't be left alone anymore. Just imagine hearing this at 3am on a week night when you have to be at work at 9am . This becomes even harder when siblings don't agree.
The truth is it is hard to accept that you now must be the person who makes choices and decisions for the person who taught you how. If you or the aging person is lucky you have already started a conversation and even have long term happinesslifetime.com care insurance to help off-set the cost , if not its a scary place to be. The first and most important thing to remember is The marketers for the facilities you might be looking at are not your friends. The job they are paid to do and if do well is to make you think they are only looking out for the persons well being. These people are in it to make money, I know because I worked in long term care all aspects for over 20 years.
There are several retirement communities that spout they are not for profit when in fact they are managed by a management company that is all about the bottom line. You need to know it will not be the people you interact with daily that will make the decisions that directly related to the care of yourself or loved one. The choice of vendors.pharmacies and staffing numbers are decided by someone that is very rarely in the building.
The second important thing is to not look to the lic. agencyof assisted living who provides their lic. to give care, They will not protect you or your loved ones interest. The assisted living facilities are now providing nursing home care but are not required to have the same professional caregivers and are not subject to the same scrutiny as nursing homes. They do not even require a real nurse to be there, someone just needs to sign the oversight form monthly. The majority of medication is administered by someone who took a week long course only.
Even when on a licencing visit when they find medications have not been signed out as given these facilities are not fined but you can believe the resident has been charged for it. When actually you don't know its been given. The Lic agency will follow-up on a complaint( only because this is mandated by law) but seldom do they find the complaint founded when it is in reference to the number of staff required to provide service or care to a certain number of residents. Recently a local lic. agency agreed with a facility that stated 1 nurse and one cna could adequately care for 53 residents on 6 wings on two seperate floors. Including the need for incontinent care and medication administration.
The monthly rent for some of these residents exceeds $4000.oo because of the level of care they need,remember many leases are service based which means you pay if dad so much as needs someone to remove his socks and shoes. The premiums paid by you for long term care(if you have this insurance) result in the insurance company making payment based on the services the facility says you or your loved one require but does anyone from the insurance company physically come to the facility and see that these services are truelly being provided on a consistent basis?
The majority of time a form is faxed to be completed and is usually completed by someone who does not do or even see the care as it is provided.The bottom line is with out changes,without the demand of accountability nothing will change and that is why I am sad to say I have left the healthcare feild.I wish now to educate and advocate I will not be part of the problem I hope to be part of the solution.
Lisa Knipple LPN
I have worked in health care for over 23 years ,I have loved being a nurse and the thing I always focused on was the patient as the priorty. I have lived and worked in the state of Virginia for 9 years.
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