Is a Nursing Home Care Plan Necessary?

Published on October 10, 2018

You’ve decided to place your loved one in a nursing home. You’ve searched through many different options to find the right home. You’ve found the right one and moved your loved one in. Now what? The first thing you’ll want to do is take an active role in your loved one’s nursing home care plan. Nursing homes are required to submit care plan information to the federal government. It’s then used for quality measures, nursing home payment and state inspections.

What does a care plan include?

A basic nursing home care plan will include a health assessment that begins on the day you’re admitted and must be completed within 14 days of admission. From there, a health assessment must continue at least every 90 days after your initial assessment, and possibly more frequently if your medical status changes.

What else can be included?

The more detailed a care plan is, the better. In fact, if you have specific instructions for proper care of a loved one, it needs to be in the care plan. This is the easiest and best way to hold caregivers accountable if your instructions were not followed. Things that could be included are:

– What kind of personal or health care services are needed
– What type of staff should provide these services
– How often those services are needed
– What kind of equipment or supplies are needed (such as a wheelchair, feeding tube, etc…)
– What kind of diet is needed and food preferences
– Instructions for feeding (if your loved one is a choking hazard, you’ll want to specify that food should be cut up into dime-size pieces, for example)
– Health and personal goals, and how your plan will help reach those goals

Again, you want this information to be as specific and detailed as possible. Vague verbiage only leaves your loved one at risk and makes it more difficult to hold the home or caregiver accountable for mistreatment.

What rights do family members have?

Many nursing home residents rely on family members to speak up for their needs. But what rights do family members have in doing so? Believe it or not, you do not need special legal authority to:

– Participate in assessments and care planning
– Be informed of resident rights
– Immediate access to visit your loved one at any given time (subject to the resident’s consent)
– Be notified within 24 hours of an accident resulting in an injury, a significant change in your loved one’s condition, a need to alter treatment significantly, or a decision to transfer the resident
– Be notified promptly if your loved one is going to be moved to another room or if there is a change of roommates
– Participate in family council and make recommendations and present grievances without retaliation

If you’d like to be notified in case of the above scenarios, be sure to provide your contact information to the home to write down and keep on file.

If you find that your loved one has not been cared for properly resulting in serious injury or death, schedule a free consultation with the compassionate, skilled and experienced Arizona nursing home abuse and neglect attorneys at Knapp & Roberts today at 480-991-7677. There is never a fee unless we recover money for you. Call us today to learn how we can help.