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How To Choose the Right Nursing Home

Published on Jan 14, 2025 by Thomas Law Offices.

How To Choose the Right Nursing HomeYou’ve made the hard choice to relocate your parent or other close family member from their own home or your own into a Chicago nursing home. Now, you have the tremendous responsibility of trying to find the best possible assisted living facility for them to reside in. You’re wondering how to choose the right nursing home for them.

Read on, and we’ll share steps to take to pick the best possible nursing home for your close relative.

Carefully Consider Online Reviews

It’s commonplace in this era, especially when someone is making a significant investment of funds or someone’s health and well-being is on the line, to look up online reviews about a product, procedure, or service. This is certainly something you should be aware of when determining which nursing home is best to place your loved one in.

In looking for reviews, you’ll probably find online directories, nursing home guides for your area, Google Business Profiles, social media pages, and maybe even come across the Medicare Care Compare tool.

Be sure not to consider just one of those profiles but all of them. See how recent the posts are and if they seem genuine, like an actual relative of a resident posted them. Pay close attention to the reviews to see what they say about any potential signs of nursing home abuse or neglect anyone may have noticed.

Ask for Referrals

When looking for a Chicago nursing home, you’ll find that there are many to choose from.

One of the best ways to narrow down your list of choices is to ask others if they have any experience with any particular facilities (good or bad). If you don’t know anyone personally in your same predicament trying to find an assisted living facility for your relative, then consider asking others who may have some insight for advice, such as:

  • Nurses or social workers at the hospital
  • A pharmacist or medical supply store representative
  • The physical therapist working with your loved one
  • A member of the clergy (i.e., your family pastor)
  • Your relative’s doctors
  • A specialized transportation driver
  • A recreational center representative (who works closely with senior citizens and other vulnerable populations)

If you think about it, there’s no shortage of individuals that you interact with on a regular basis who may have some valuable insight to impart about how to choose the right nursing home in Chicago for your loved one. Some of them may even be able to recommend certain facilities by name.

Take a Tour of Your Shortlisted Assisted Living Facilities

Like anything you’re planning to invest in or a person you’re planning to entrust the care of your valued family member to, it’s imperative that you take a tour of the top Chicago nursing homes that you’re planning to move your loved one into.

When visiting these long-term care facilities, you should make note of the following:

  • Residents’ demeanors: Do they appear to be happy or in a good mood or depressed or distressed)?
  • The cleanliness of the facility: How are the smells, how freshly cleaned the carpets and other floors appear, etc.
  • How attentive staff is: Do you hear residents calling out for help? Do you see staff circulating about checking on residents at regular intervals? While one of these may be a sign of neglect, another may mean the opposite.
  • The quality of food offered: You may want to visit the dining hall not only to better understand if it allows for resident socialization but also to see how nutritious and appetizing the food it serves looks.
  • How well-maintained is the facility? Does it look like there’s a lot of broken furniture, unchanged light bulbs, torn carpet, or uneven flooring? These are just some examples of concerns that could cause unnecessary injuries.
  • Speaking with other residents or their family members: This can prove fruitful in helping you identify whether a facility is as good as it seems.
  • Interacting with staff: Give them a brief overview and ask them questions about how they handle certain situations. Whether they seem confident will tell you a lot about their competence to take care of your relative.

By taking the three steps above, you’ll be off to a good start in creating and narrowing down your list of nursing homes in Chicago that may be a good fit for your loved one. However, unfortunate circumstances may occur. If you’ve had an unfortunate experience with a nursing home in Chicago, Thomas Law Offices can help.

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Tad Thomas - Trial Lawyer

Tad Thomas

Managing Partner

Tad Thomas has dedicated his practice to representing plaintiffs in various types of civil litigation, including personal injury, business litigation, class actions, and multi-district litigation.

After graduating with his law degree in 2000 from Salmon P. Chase College of Law at Northern Kentucky University, Mr. Thomas immediately opened his own private practice and began representing injury victims.

In 2011, Thomas Law Offices was established in Louisville, Kentucky. Over the past decade, Mr. Thomas has expanded his firm and now has offices in three additional locations: Cincinnati, Ohio, Columbia, Missouri, and Chicago, Illinois. He is also a frequent lecturer on topics like trial skills and ethics and technology.

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