Nursing homes
Does anyone have experience with Austin nursing homes? Who to avoid, who’s good, who’s depressing, who’s cheerful? I’d appreciate any comments you have to offer.
I’ve been looking through the Nursing Home Ratings in Texas and it’s just depressing. There are degrees of bad things nursing homes can do. “Actual harm with potential for minimal harm” is worse than “Actual harm with potential for minimal harm that is not immediate jeopardy”. Keeping residents strapped down, known as “The facility did not keep each resident free from physical restraints, unless needed for medical treatment”, qualifies as “No actual harm with potential for More than Minimal Harm that is not Immediate Jeopardy”. In order to be in compliance with state standards, errors in dispensing prescription drugs must be less than 5%. That includes wrong drug, wrong dose, and wrong time. Like what happened to this woman, who was prescribed chlorpromazine for depression, but the pharmacy gave her chlorpropamide, which lowers blood sugar, instead. She died.
If you’re caught in that middle land between wealth and poverty, you’ll end up paying $150/day out of your pocket. Medicare doesn’t cover nursing homes. If it’s just one member of a married couple going in, you can divide your assets in half, and the spouse who’s going into care has to spend every dime before Medicaid will cover costs. And if you have more than $180,000 in assets, you can’t get Medicaid at all. Older people have been working and saving all their lives, working full time for 50 years or so. Are there that many who really have less than $180k?
It’s a depressing concept, but necessary for some. No need to make matters worse by putting a loved one into a facility that beats patients. So on behalf of a friend, I’m searching for recommendations.
August 19th, 2003 at 5:54 am
My experience is that if you are going to pay $150.00 per day, a small assisted living facility is better. The care is more personal and the atmosphere is way better. There are several listings in the booklet avaiable at the doctor’s office. Its called something like Austin Senior Care Options.