Compare the quality of the nursing homes you're considering

Nursing Home Compare

Use Nursing Home Compare to compare the nursing homes you're considering by these criteria:

What are some other ways you can find out about nursing home quality? 

Call your Long-Term Care Ombudsman. The Ombudsman program helps nursing home residents solve problems by acting on their behalf. Long-Term Care Ombudsman:

  • Visit nursing homes and speak with residents throughout the year to make sure residents' rights are protected
  • Work to solve problems with your nursing home care, including financial issues
  • Discuss general information about nursing homes and nursing home care
  • Help you compare a nursing home's strengths and weaknesses
  • Answer questions, like how many complaints they've gotten about a specific nursing home, what kind of complaints they were, and if the issues were resolved in a timely manner

Call the local office of consumer affairs for your state and ask if they've written information on the quality of care given in local nursing homes.

Call your state health department or state licensing agency. Ask if they've written information on the quality of care given in local nursing homes.

What are resident-directed care & the culture change movement?

There's a growing, nationwide movement among many nursing homes to change the nursing home culture from rigid institutional living to living in a setting more like a home. Nursing homes involved in this "culture change" practice resident-directed or resident-centered care which promotes greater resident choice over their schedules (like getting up, going to sleep, method and timing of bathing) and their activities.

Many homes involved in this culture change have "households" within their former living units, which include small groups of residents (usually less than 20). This group of residents has the same staff assigned to them and has activities and meals together. Each household has a kitchen, dining room, and living room space.

Assigning the same staff on most days lets the nursing home staff and residents form close relationships. This way, staff can more fully meet residents' needs and preferences and help them reach their highest level of well-being and functioning.

Often culture changing homes have resident pets, and some let a resident bring in his or her own pet (with staff or volunteers assisting the resident with pet care). Other homes have connections to a day care setting in which elders and children interact regularly.

For more information on resident-directed care and the culture change movement, visit websites for culture change.

What's facility quality assurance & what are quality improvement campaigns?

All nursing homes are required to have a committee review any issues of concern with the quality of care and quality of life of residents. The committee must also address and correct these issues on an ongoing basis using principles of continuous quality improvement. Also, many nursing homes are currently participating in public quality improvement campaigns. Knowing that a nursing home participates in one may be a good sign of the home's commitment to improving quality.