4 Ways Nursing Homes Standards Have Improved In Recent Years
Originally, nursing homes were built entirely around the tried and tested military model of efficiency over necessary emphasis on mental health and comfort. However, as seniors throughout the United States continue to exceed life expectancy estimates, with the numbers of over 95’s in America rising exponentially every year, the demand to improve nursing homes and the subsequent improvements that have been made dramatically raised the standard of nursing homes nationally and significantly improved the service across the country.
If you or your loved one are capable of living independently and are not suffering from, for example, a memory-based illness such as dementia, then nursing homes are the best option.
Security
It is now a legal requirement for nursing homes across the country to install CCTV at all entry points on-site and in staff offices, elevators, and communal areas. Video surveillance plays an even larger role in perimeter security, both as a way of ensuring trespassers are always unsuccessful and as a safety measure to ensure patients who have dementia who tend to wander in the evenings stay safely within the nursing home’s boundaries. Night staff are tasked with walking the site through the early hours, and usually, there are a series of checkpoints one must be granted access through before they can reach the part of the building where the residents reside.
On-Site Medical Services
These days, nursing homes provide a wide range of personal care services, and there is usually a fully trained medical professional on-site 24/7; these will usually be fully trained nursing practitioners and healthcare assistants that you would find in a hospital setting. Nursing homes offer the most extensive care a person can get outside a hospital and offer help with custodial care and skilled medical attention when necessary.
Social Interaction and Activities
Socializing in a nursing home is certainly not what it used to be, and gone are the days where the options to interact were limited to bingo, daytime television, and singing war songs while gathered around the radio. Instead, social activities and excursions that are now almost standard practice in nursing homes include theatre trips, hairdressers, arts and crafts courses, painting classes, singing groups, and games nights.
Payment Plans
Medicaid is a joint federal and state program that helps with medical costs for some people with limited income and resources. According to federal requirements, they provide health coverage to millions of people throughout the United States and is administered and jointly funded by states. Alternatively, long-term care insurance can help pay for many types of long-term care, and as a result, these types of policies can vary wildly. Ensure you thoroughly research any long-term insurance policy you opt for and specifically check it covers nursing homes.
The pre-conceived, negative connotations one used to conjure up in one’s mind of nursing homes truly are a thing of the past. Providing you commit to research, a nursing home is now a viable, safe and secure option for loved ones who need some extra help.
