When elderly people can no longer care for themselves independently, they may need to live in a nursing home. A nursing home has trained medical personnel who provide services such as medication management and/or assistance with their activities of daily living (ADL's) such as dressing, bathing, grooming, mobility or toileting. Sometimes younger people with a physical or mental disability also need nursing home care. Nursing homes have different levels of care depending on how much assistance an individual needs. Dallas, Texas has 28 nursing homes that provide different levels of service.
Types of Nursing Facilities
Skilled nursing facilities (SNF) have registered nurses who provide 24-hour care for the patients who require skilled services. Each patient has a licensed physician, who oversees all of their care. Skilled medical care includes RN services and may include physical, occupational and/or speech therapy. Custodial care is assistance provided with ADL's and does not require the skilled services of a nurse or therapist. Assisted living facilities emphasize personal autonomy and privacy. They provide personal assistance that only requires minimal medical training. Continuing Care Retirement Communities offer all of these services which allows patients to stay in the same place as their care needs change. Dallas has a variety of all of these types of facilities.
Top Five Nursing Homes in Dallas
According to U.S. News and World Report's "Best Nursing Homes in Texas for 2010" the top five nursing homes in Dallas that made the list are respectively: Silverado Senior Living - Turtle Creek; CC Young Memorial Home; Grace Presbyterian Village; Traymore Nursing Center; The Place at Edgemere Health Center. Their findings are based on Nursing Home Compare program that is run by the federal government Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). CMS rates the nursing homes with one to five stars in three areas: health inspections, nurse staffing and measures of care. A one to five rating is also given for overall rating. At Nursing Home Compare you can find further information about each nursing home and most facilities in the 50 states. Approximately 150 facilities were too new to provide enough information to fairly rate.
A Starting Place
CMS states that searching Nursing Home Compare should only be the starting place to find information about any facility you may be considering as a home for a loved one. For first-hand information CMS recommends visiting potential nursing homes in person. It states that you should make a couple of visits at different times on different days to get a good perspective about a facility.Visiting at meal time is a good way to evaluate many things about a facility. You can observe the quality of meals served and see how staff interact with the patients. Mealtime provides a good opportunity to meet and talk with staff, patients and family members.
Comparing Nursing Homes
According to U.S. News & World Report, CMS states that you should not assume all five-star homes are equal in quality. There are 1,855 homes that have five-star ratings. These homes have many variables. The top five homes for Dallas range in size from 22 to 160 beds. Three of the homes are nonprofit and the other two are for profit homes. Four of the homes are Continuing Care Retirement Centers. The other home, Traymore Nursing Center, is a skilled nursing facility only. Silverado Senior Living - Turtle Creek is the highest raked home for Dallas. Yet there are four homes outside of Dallas that ranked higher. Three of the homes are dually certified, Medicare and Medicaid. While the other two homes are Medicare certified only. While this information is helpful, many other factors need to be taken into consideration.
Considerations
Medicare and Medicaid are regulated by the federal government and the state in which the facility resides. State survey teams conduct annual health inspections in their state every 12 to 15 months. The federal government will also complete an inspection of a percentage of these state surveys to monitor the states compliance with federal regulations. It is important to look at each facilities deficiencies and the scope and severity of them. When a facility has deficiencies, the next important step is to look at the facility's plan for correcting the problem and how it worked. The top five nursing homes in Dallas have many different variables from one another and each must be evaluated within their own context.
