Skilled nursing facilities

Yikes. Sorry for you and your family.

From the Lucas County Area Office on Aging website -- http://www.areaofficeonaging.com/aoaservices.html -- these two snippets may be of help to you:

Long-Term Care Consultation is a statewide program designed to assist seniors and their families with long term care decisions. A trained and experienced professional can visit seniors in their own home and help assess their needs. The Long-Term Care Consultation consultant will discuss available services, eligibility requirements and financial resources necessary, and create a plan of care. There is no charge for a Care Choice Ohio evaluation. Call AOoA at 1-419-382-0624.

The Long Term Care Ombudsman program can assist older adults and their families with questions and complaints concerning nursing home or home care. The address for the LTC Ombudsman is 740 Spitzer Building, 520 Madison Ave. Toledo, 43604. Call 259-2891 or 1-800-542-1874.

Good luck. Sorry about this tough time for you and your family.

The Social Worker at the hospital should be looking for facilities for you. Before you place someone ask to see the years previous State Survey results. Bed availability in the nicer facilities is sometimes a problem. Again, the SS should provide the names of at least a couple of places. If this persons prognosis is really poor, Hospice may be appropriate. What options and facilities have been discussed with you??

yah, agree with rockchick, get with the Social Worker asap.

Little sisters of the poor in oregon, had a very good reputation when I was doing Social Work. I also reccomend using this site.

http://www.medicare.gov/NHCompare/Include/DataSection/Questions/SearchCriteriaNEW.asp?version=default&browser=IE%7C8%7CWindows+Vista&language=English&defaultstatus=0&pagelist=Home&CookiesEnabledStatus=True

Just checked Little Sisters and their ratings have tanked so I withdrawl my reccomendation for them. I guess things Change over time.

Sorry to hear about your situation. Remember you can always tour the facility and interview the admissions dirctors, etc. before making a decision. Best of luck and God bless.

I visited a relative in Heartland of Perrysburg about four years ago and it seemed like a nice facility. Don't know how it is today. Someone also told me that Perrysburg Care & Rehab was good. I guess you would want to stay away from places that have had a lot of complaints or poor ratings. Good luck!

Thanks for all of the suggestions. Unfortunately, the social worker gave us a long list of facilities... Based on reputation, anyone have any ideas? We do not want her in a place with a poor rep. or any place that will not take great care of her....

Do you have a preference as to which part of town?

Not that location would be the only factor you'd consider, but its a consideration if you're looking to have family check in regularly.

(And honestly, no matter what the facility, I think can help to have frequent visitors. Makes the staff remember that the patient has loved ones who are paying attention and advocating for them!)

The link I gave gives you a way to compare the homes and rates them on several different areas. If you look at individual homes you can pull up Health inspections, Staffing information, Quality Measures. Each home is rated 1-5 stars for an overall rating, as well as a 1-5 rating on the health inspections, staffing, and quality measures. They also indicate if the home accepts medicaid, and medicare, How many beds it has, and the type of ownership. All very good information. The best part is you can pull up a list of homes, by zip code (plus a mile radius), or a city and mile radius, then you can just compare the list to what your social worker gave you. Count on the better homes being pretty full and harder to get into. Narrow down your list to a few and go see them for yourself, is the home clean are staff friendly and informative, do the patients look happy, and clean and groomed. Do staff appear to engage all the patients or just certain ones. On the health inspections remember that all homes will likely have some hits, you want to look at the types and seriousness of the citations.

My mother (passed away from cancer of the liver this January) was in Heartland of Perrysburg for much of 2010. In my humble opinion, angels run that place. They treated my mother like she was THEIR mother (love and gentle care).

http://www.hcr-manorcare.com/heartlandnursing/perrysburg

MrsPheonix: I have heard good things about Heartland. Will check it out.
roygbiv: great information and suggestions. I will check out that resource as well.
RockChick: We have spoken to Hospice and she is not eligible to go there ): They are very nice people.

GDW....wishing you luck in your search! One place to cross off your list would be Darlington Nursing and Rehab. It is on the corner of Douglas and Darlington in Old Orchard. It has probably changed names by now and has been bought and sold and bankrupt too many times to mention. Bottom line,the place is a filthy shit hole. I can't believe the place hasn't burned down or fallen down. The nurse aids are some of the meanest people I have ever met ( most of the residents were terrified of them). You will have a hard time finding a Charge Nurse as they are outside smoking or are on their cell sitting outside in their car. This place may be suggested to you as they always have empty beds.

Sorry for your loss Mrs Phoenix, but glad to hear of her great care.

Ryan, thank you. I too had heard of Darlington Nursing's reputation - and in fact it was on the suggestion list of a St. Ann's social worker. I respectfully said HELL NO and chose Heartland.

Another good link http://www.carepathways.com/ gives ratings, and more detailed reports for a small price. It is similar to the Medicare link provided above. Funny that both give excellent ratings to Darlington. I would give more weight to personal experiences than ratings by inspectors, however, particularly if the inspections are scheduled rather than random. Heartland of Perrysburg was given excellent ratings on both sites as well. Just from what I've seen on this thread regarding Darlington, I would not go there.

I worked at Darlington and I don't want to sound like a disgruntled former employee. State Inspectors were in there almost weekly to investige complaints. The Nurse Aids would disappear for hours and magically turn up at the end of their shift to punch out. When I worked there a Rabbi from Cleveland owned the place and he eventually filed for bankrupcy. Even though the place has changed hands numerous times, the same people work there! They also have NO central air conditioning in patient areas and it is sweltering in the summer. I can't begin to tell you all the horror stories about the place.

I agree, Darlington is out, completely. The facility next to Flower in Sylvania is not good either. Patients had personal stuff stolen. Thanks to everyone for the info. It helps, big time!

Goldie, my father was in Franciscan Care Center in Sylvania and loved it there. He was there short-term in March, and went back at the end of April, with hospice care through Senior Independence.

He passed away May 1, and the staff could not have been more kind and helpful. Sr. Jordan is a saint.

It makes me so angry that a place like Darlington can stay open. Health inspectors can shut down restaurants for repeated violations but nursing homes can continue with their poor care and get away with it. It makes no sense.

Thank you Anniecski! Another place to look at (: