GoLocal Providence reports that a quarter of Rhode Island nursing homes come in below standards.
One reason is chronic understaffing and low pay. Nursing home care done right is very labor-intensive, and requires a high level of responsibility and motivation. We expect so much, but we don’t give nurses aides the pay or respect that they deserve.
My experience is that a good match between a patient and nursing home depends on many factors, and reading the stats won’t tell the whole story. If you need to check one out, get past the lobby to the floor where the most disabled patients reside. That will tell you more than the PR. If you see patients slouched in chairs with their feet dangling while staff are hanging around, or else running around looking stressed and tired–cross that place off your list.
Kmareka.com 
My mom is in assisted living and we also have some additional CNA help for her in the morning…this seems like a good situation because we have all the basics with the assisted living and then can tailor the added services more carefully to what we feel is needed. Not cheap, but less expensive than a nursing home, and without the restrictions that come with that level of care.
I’m sorry to hear many nursing homes in RI are below standard. This is 95% women’s work in elderly care, except of course for the head honchos. It’s work that is not valued when compared with other stuff, but where is the money going to come from to pay for better wages? Most families are stretched to afford nursing care, to up the cost even further will put it further out of reach, unless we want to defy Ayn Rand and bring in the evil and cumbersome government to help foot the bill.
My mom has been in assisted living for quite a while,interspersed with rehab resulting from falls and resultant injuries.
Facilities vary and we’ve seen good and bad of both kinds.
You have to be on top of things.
I have met some very good people working in these places.
A lot of older people(not those with Alzheimer’s)are just normally set in their ways and can be difficult to deal with and their perceptions can be inaccurate.It takes patience.
BTW I have met excellent men in the direct care milieu.
I don’t know why,but Filipinos seem to be very successful in having copacetic relationships with older people-maybe it’s a cultural thing.
Speaking of evil, I’ve had a tough week of dealing with the paperwork of various insurances. It makes Medicare look like a walk in the park, and Medicare has a 20 page form I have to fill out every time I admit someone to get a gauze on their incision or their pills sorted.
I dread to think of what we’ll end up with if we chuck Medicare in favor of a voucher and more predatory middlemen.
They don’t teach us in nursing school how to navigate the stacks of paperwork insurances demand to maximize their profits. You’d think anatomy, physiology and pharmacology would be enough to handle.
The paper storm makes it easier for fraud to exist and even for someone with all their faculties it’s daunting to try and figure out which bills are correct.
I’ve questioned some bills sent to my mom and guess what?The bills were never sent back to us.
This was only a few times,but just figure that a lot of people have no way to evaluate what’s being sent to them.If they’re old and have no one to check things over,they can be billed for incorrect amounts or for services not provided.
If Medicare/Medicaid fraud by dishonest providers were treated like heroin sales,you’d see an amazing savings to the taxpayers,and less of a crisis in the system.
The voucher idea really sucks.
I don’t follow the Republican leadership like a mind slave.
My idea is that fraud and waste should be seriously attacked first,and only then should thought be given to revamping the system in any significant way.
We’re all against fraud and waste. It costs money to hire inspectors, but citizens can report, and we should.
Even the VA, bless their hearts, send more pills or supplies sometimes than is needed for a patient.
Actually,the money spent on an effective auditing system will more than pay for itself.
Stiff penalties,including real prison time can work too.
Most crooked providers aren’t prepared to spend time “on the yard”.
I’d be satisfied to turn them upside down and shake them till the money falls out of their pockets.
But Florida elected Rick Scott as governor, and he just barely stayed out of jail for health care fraud.
Well,that’s up to Florida voters,I’d say.Do you want an ombudsman to overturn unseemly election results.
If he misbehaves in office,I’m sure they can recall him.I actually have never heard of him.I thought you meant the guy in Wisconsin and wrote Florida.LOL.