One of my pet peeves with is that there is no rhyme or reason to how they choose their residents. The only goal is to “fill” a bed without regard to how a potential resident will get along with other residents.
Often, when I tour many a nursing home, I find that residents who are mentally ill are not segregated. Alzheimer’s Disease residents are mixed in with alert residents, young with old, short-term rehabilitation residents with long-term residents. Mixing residents with different needs is detrimental to the patient as well as to the staff.
Having said that, you can imagine my distress at seeing this question posted by an Executive Director of a Nursing Home, on a Group Page on LinkedIn.
QUESTION: Does anyone have experience recruiting potential residents at homeless shelters to raise census??? I have heard of some nursing homes going to shelters looking for people that would qualify for Medicaid...I have heard they send the potential resident to the hospital for a (h&p) history & physical to get a diagnosis. Does anyone know how the process works and if it is a good idea or successful to raise census??? I have heard mixed results.
While many nursing home administrators are concerned about increasing their census (and they should be), there are numerous innovative and appropriate ways to do this before they resort to placing their currents residents at risk from this population. The homeless elderly certainly deserve good care, but a program has to be specifically tailored to them.
In my opinion, this was a very callous question. It amplifies what I have been saying for many years: The elderly residents in our nursing homes have a right to care that meets their needs. This question proves that many administrators and owners of nursing homes are putting them at risk in order to make a buck.
To the credit of other administrators in this LinkedIn group, many responded that it was a bad idea. My response was anger.
