It is never an ideal situation whenever short-term rehab at a facility or long term care at a nursing home is recommended by medical professionals. No one wants to go somewhere that isn’t their home.

However, this recommendations is being made because these facilities can offer care that is difficult to receive effectively in the home. Home health services are limited.

Check out the post “Beginner’s Guide to Home Health Care Services” to learn more about what services are provided with home health care.

Most people don’t have the money or access to certain rehab equipment. Complex nursing care can be expensive and difficult to obtain. In addition, many people can not provide or afford to provide 24/7 care and supervision in the home.

Unfortunately, sometimes short term rehab or long term care in a nursing facility is the best option. No nursing facility is perfect, but they also aren’t all bad either. It’s important to tour facilities and ask the right questions when deciding on a facility for your loved one.

Check out the post “Top 15 Questions to ask a Skilled Nursing Facility” to help you choose the right facility for your loved one.

When You have Concerns with Nursing Homes and Rehab Facilities

Because nursing facilities aren’t the perfect solution, you may run into some problems or concerns with some facilities. It’s important to know that patients have rights in the nursing facilities. And family members have the right to advocate on behalf of their loved ones.

If you are not happy with the care your loved one is getting at a nursing home or rehab facility there are a few things you can do. It’s important to bring up your concerns no matter how big or small. If you let the small things go over time, they build up into bigger things and then no one wins.

Here are 3 ways to handle any problems or concerns you may have with a nursing home or rehab facility

3 Ways to Handle Problems with a Nursing Home

1. Request a Care Conference

The first and best thing you can do when you have problems or concerns with the care at a nursing home is to request a care conference. A care conference can give you the opportunity to voice your concerns with multiple disciplines in the facility.

Not only can you voice your concerns to various departments involved in your loved one’s care, but this also ensures that multiple people have heard your concerns. When multiple people have heard you, it makes it more difficult for them to deny ever knowing about the issues.

To request a care conference, ask for the facility social worker. It is their responsibility to make sure a care conference is set up and to invite all department heads involved in your loved one’s care. I would also suggest asking that the Nursing Home Administrator or Executive Director also attends the care conference.

In my opinion, a nursing home administrator or executive director that makes a point to attend a requested care conference, is someone that is genuinely wanting to make changes.

During the care conference, make sure that everyone at the meeting relays back to you what they heard. Make sure they write it down. And make sure they give you demand a time frame of when they will implement changes.

If you don’t demand a time frame, the issues to be addressed may take too much time or never be addressed. Demanding a time of when they should get back to you with a plan or implementation of changes, it makes it difficult for them to be held accountable.

On the other side, make sure you give them a reasonable amount of time to make corrections and changes. There are facilities that want to do what is best for your loved one. They do care. They may not always know that there are problems unless you tell them. Addressing issues and making changes can also take a little bit of time. Give them a chance, some of them are really trying and just have limited resources.

2. Contact the Ombudsman

If you have voiced your concerns with the facility and they still have not addressed it or made changes, it’s time to move on to your next line of defense.

Reaching out to the local Ombudsman is a great next step. An Ombudsman is an advocate for residents in long term nursing homes and rehab facilities. Under the Older Americans Act, every state is required to have an Ombudsman program to advocate for residents in nursing facilities. Their role is to advocate on behalf of the resident and to address complaints made on behalf of these residents.

Their role is to investigate complaints made against nursing facilities to ensure the residents are being well-cared for and to eliminate abuse and neglect. The Ombudsman program is there to protect your loved one and to fight for their rights.

You can locate your local Ombudsman program to make a complaint at: https://eldercare.acl.gov/

3.  Filing a Complaint with the State Health Department

If you have already tried the first two options above and your concerns are still not addressed, the last resort would be to file a complaint with the State Health Department.

When you file an official complaint with the State Health Department, the Nursing home division of the health department will complete a thorough investigation about your complaint. They may contact you directly and may also make a visit out to the nursing home for a formal investigation.

If a complaint investigation is open, the nursing home is required to complete a plan of action or plan of care to address the concern and submit it to the State Health Department. Afterwards there is often a period of time that the State Health Department will follow up with the facility to ensure the plan of action has been adequately implemented.

To file a formal complaint, there is typically a form that you can complete and either mail or fax into the State Health Department. You may also be able to make the complaint via phone. It depends on your State. You can check out Medicare’s website at: www.medicare.gov/talk-to-someone to find your State Health Department’s contact information.

You can also Click below for the form that is often used to file a complaint about a nursing home to the State.

The Bottom Line

No nursing home is perfect. However, it is the right of the patient and the right of the family to voice their concerns about the care. If you or someone else feels that your loved one is being mistreated, it is vital that you speak up.

Most nursing homes want to do the right thing and really care about their residents. It’s best if you can give them the opportunity to make necessary changes to improve the care.

If you are still not being heard by the facility and changes aren’t being made in a reasonable amount of time, reaching out to your local Ombudsman program is the next step. Facilities are required by law to hang the contact information of the assigned Ombudsman to that facility. If you cannot find that information posted, you can find the contact information online.

Finally, if the concerns become more serious and the Ombudsman program was not able to address the issue adequately, you can make a formal complain with the State.

Voicing concerns of care does not make you a bad person and you should not feel bad for doing so. Speaking up can prevent the concerns you may have from becoming very serious. It can also prevent any potential abuse or neglect happening to your loved one or anyone else at the facility.