If you are interested in inspecting the quality of a nursing home in St. Louis, you need to keep a watchful eye out for certain inconsistencies. If residents are not clean, socializing, or are not attended to when asking for help, these are red flags.
Residents of nursing homes need constant attention, and when a staff member refuses, forgets, or neglects the residents of that home, then that could create an unfavorable situation. Worse yet, it could cause irreparable harm to a loved one. Because of this, you need to be consistently wary of nursing homes that treat their residents this way.
Use Your Senses
While many may not think to do so, visiting when staff are not expecting a visitor is a phenomenal way to view the real inner workings of a nursing home. People looking to inspect the quality of a home should visit at different hours and not be predictable. When visiting, you need to use all your senses. Use your sense of smell. If you smell urine and feces, the nursing home is probably not a place for your loved ones to reside because they do not have the staffing level to take care of those clear problems in a quick manner. Are you seeing residents who are well-dressed, or are they mismatched? Did they have stains on their clothes?
Use your hearing and sight as well for the call alarms or the bed alarms. If you hear any sort of alarm, you know that that a resident’s needs are not being answered in a timely manner. People need to pay attention and see how long it takes for somebody to respond to those call lights.
Technology Available to Staff
One of the less intuitive aspects to look out for when choosing the right St. Louis nursing home is the level of technology. What people may not realize is that certain technology could benefit staffers just as much as residents. Depending on the needs of a resident, bedrails, pressure-sensitive call buttons, and safety precautions could assist living. Much in the same vein, nursing staffers could benefit from call buttons, beepers, and alerts that let them know that their residents are safe or are in need of immediate assistance.
Let an Experienced Attorney Help
When you look at nursing homes to help your loved one live their golden years, there are certain characteristics you need to look for when choosing the right St. Louis nursing home. If you spot other residents not being attended to in a manner that they need to be, that could indicate that this nursing home is not ideal. However, for more information, talk to an experienced trial lawyer who has defended residents of nursing homes.