Nursing Homes: Small and Non-Profit is Best

As many of you know, I've handled nursing home cases for the past 15 years.  I think I've seen most every kind of case and most every kind of nursing home.  Over the years I've noticed that people didn't contact me as much about the true non-profit homes, so I have assumed that the care must be better there.  Turns out I may have been right.  A new survey came out recently from the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.  The recently released Nursing Home Survey on Patient Safety Culture gives us a peek at what more than 16,000 people who work at 226 nursing homes think about the places where they work.   Of course, much of what these nursing home workers had to say is pretty common knowledge:  Nursing Homes are understaffed.  That's been the main problem in most of the cases I've handled over the years, and it is confirmed by this survey.  About 60% of the workers felt that their facilities didn't have enough staff to handle the resident's needs safely, and almost two-thirds agreed that they had to hurry in providing care because there was just too much work to do.  The workers also rated nonprofit homes higher than commercial homes and 4 out of 5 working in nonprofits would recommend the facility to friends.  Finally, smaller is better according to these employees.  In nursing homes with 49 or fewer beds almost 4 out of 5 awarded their facility with overall high safety ratings.  While these findings certainly aren't scientific, its good to know what the staff thinks, particularly the aides who do most of the work and provide most of the care to our loved ones.