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When looking at nursing homes for a special someone in your life, you want the short list of candidates to be as top performing as possible. With so many facilities around, how will you ever narrow down the choices? The distance from where you live to the home should figure into your choice for your loved one. It is smart to balance out practical considerations, such as cost and driving distance with quality of care and issues such as fire safety and health inspections. There are resources available that will help you to obtain the information that you need to make the right decision for your ailing loved one. The U.S. News America's Best Nursing Homes rankings offer quality information. The data found here is collected and analyzed by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service (CMS) and includes data that most of the various states post online for anyone to access. While perusing all of this data may seem like a huge chore, the numbers tell a compelling story that is worth paying close attention to. Not only will they help you narrow down the choices, but they will also provide you with the kinds of questions that you need to ask the administrators of these homes when you visit with them. One of the best antidotes for sadness, loneliness and depression when living at a nursing care facility is frequent visits from adult children, grandchildren, siblings and friends. The visits do not have to be long, but when they are as frequent as possible, this can keep the resident's spirits buoyant. Close proximity can make it easier for you to drop by more often, as opposed to visiting only on holidays or once or twice a month. Being only a short drive away also helps you as the responsible and concerned family member to keep abreast of the type of care your loved one is receiving. The number of nurses and nurses' aides employed at nursing homes is an indicator of good care at a facility. The more nurses who work at the home, the more time they will have to help your father out of bed or to encourage your mother to socialize with other residents. What it means is that your parent will always take his or her medication on time and will be monitored closely for side effects or drug interactions. Finding out how many nurses are on staff at a prospective nursing facility should play a role in your final decision. Finding out the employee turnover data for nursing homes would also provide you with an indicator of the quality of staffing that is available. Many nursing homes have a yearly turnover of 50 percent or more. It is particularly high among those who work as aides, due to the demanding physical requirements of the job and the low rate of pay. Make sure to do a thorough research of nursing homes in Grand Rapids, MI before making a final decision. See the services that this location has to offer: http://www.clarkretirement.org/choosing.php.
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