Icky

[glatt]

So how do you find an assisted living place that's good? We're looking for a place for my father in law, and called basically a referral service who told us about area places in our price range. So we toured half a dozen, and got impressions from that. But the tours didn't take us to every floor of every place. Some of the tour guides were greeting all the patients by first name as we went around, in other places, they clearly didn't know any of the patients and the places just seemed depressing.

But is there some agency or other entity that can give an unbiased assessment of these places? I wish I had some connections around here in health care who could give me some insider tips.

[Spexxvet]

Originally Posted by glatt

So how do you find an assisted living place that's good?

http://www.medicare.gov/NHCompare/st...ub&PubID=02174

a pdf from here:

http://www.medicare.gov/nhcompare/in...rch.asp?bhcp=1

[glatt]

that's helpful. It also made me thing to look up the state social services website and they had some info too.

[SamIam]

Originally Posted by glatt

So how do you find an assisted living place that's good? We're looking for a place for my father in law, and called basically a referral service who told us about area places in our price range. So we toured half a dozen, and got impressions from that. But the tours didn't take us to every floor of every place. Some of the tour guides were greeting all the patients by first name as we went around, in other places, they clearly didn't know any of the patients and the places just seemed depressing.

But is there some agency or other entity that can give an unbiased assessment of these places? I wish I had some connections around here in health care who could give me some insider tips.

Back in the day, I was forced to put my Dad in assisted living. Don't depend on the official guided tour. Show up at unexpected times and see what the staff is up to when they think no one is looking. Wander around and see if patients are just parked off in hallways somewhere with no one really keeping an eye on them. Invite yourself to lunch or dinner. Is the food edible? Is it hot if it's supposed to be and cold when it should be?

Any outfit that objects to drop in visits may well have something to hide. If possible, strike up conversations with the families who have a loved one residing there. Strike up conversations with the patients who live there. Have valuable belongings ever mysteriously vanished? Does a licensed professional dispense the medications? How difficult is it for a confused patient to wander out the door and be gone for a few hours to a few days?

It is SO hard to find reasonable care. My Dad did in fact wander off from an assisted living facility and vanished for over 24 hours. I was beside myself. He eventually turned up at a local pinball arcade, watching people play the machines.

After that I moved him to a very nice place that was very difficult to wander away from and was run by an order of Catholic nuns. Even there, someone on the staff stole my Dad's watch.

I am really hoping that I get an especially pernicious form of lung cancer that metastasizes everywhere and kills me in a few months or even weeks. The one upside of smoking.