I recently became aware of a very useful and informative online resource for locating and comparing nursing homes. Although I would never suggest choosing a nursing home for a loved one based solely on information from the internet, this could be a really good starting point that can save you time as you begin the process of choosing a nursing home.
“Nursing Home Compare” can be found at Medicare.gov. The site will pull up every nursing home in a specific city or zip code in a list format. The list contains the name, address, and telephone number for the nursing home. The website provides a rating, 1-5 stars, on three specific categories, health inspections, staffing and quality measures, for each facility. It also provides an “Overall Rating” for each facility which combines the ratings in the individual categories. There are also ways to narrow your search based on other criteria, such as, only facilities that take Medicare or Medicaid. Additionally, the website has a “compare” function which will compare up to three nursing homes of your choosing against each other.
To go to the Medicare.gov Nursing Home Compare tool click the link below:
