There are so many difficult challenges for families managing a loved one’s cancer diagnosis. From complex medical needs to emotional challenges, then logistical ones; it is a non-stop battle. And when you add to the equation choosing the right nursing home for your senior with cancer. That’s overwhelming, to say the least.
Choosing high-quality care is essential for anyone who is going to stay in the nursing home care, but for individuals fighting cancer, this is especially hard because you need to make sure that your loved one is going to have the best possible care and support.
But don’t get desperate. There are great facilities that can provide good quality care for your senior family member, but you need to know what to look for and how to check thoroughly the facility you are considering choosing.
There are a few important things to know regarding what to look for in nursing home care for cancer patients, and if you do everything right, you will feel confident about your choice.
Why Nursing Home Quality Matters for Cancer Patients
For cancer patients, impeccable medical care and attention are crucial. But, nothing less important is the emotional support and the fulfillment of daily living needs.
This medical condition brings specific needs, and your job is to make sure that the facility you decide to commit to can provide them. For example, if senior patients have treatments such as chemotherapy, a nursing home must provide:
- Qualified Medical Staff: Professional and educated staff is of the essence in this case. You need to find a facility with staff who have the knowledge to understand the unique needs of cancer patients.
- Sanitary Conditions: Cancer patients are usually immunocompromised individuals. That is why it is so important to prevent infections. What you can do in order to prevent infections that can be life-threatening for your senior loved one is to find nursing home with extraordinary sanitary conditions.
- Compassionate Care: You have probably heard many times that the most important thing in battling any disease is strong mental health and the will to fight. That is why, besides family support, it is so important that your loved one has strong emotional support from the people he is surrounded by within the facility.
Using Deficiency Reports as a Resource
There are some valuable insights that you can get from reports like the state-by-state nursing home deficiency report. You can find out the performance of nursing homes across the country to make sure you are picking one with no problems detected so far.
If you look thoroughly at those reports, you will find out if there are potential problems and compare some facilities.
- Identify Red Flags: If you check if there are previous failures to provide adequate medical care or if there is a problem with maintaining hygiene standards, you can avoid some facilities with serious deficiencies immediately.
- Compare Facilities: Check for several facilities in the same region and compare them to narrow down your search for the best option.
- Ask Informed Questions: Information that you find in the deficiency reports you can then use to ask how the facility has handled past deficiencies and improved its care practice.
The Most Important Factors for Cancer Care in Nursing Homes
As already said, this is a specific situation, and you need to evaluate more factors than normal to make sure your senior loved one is going to have adequate care. In cases when a senior is fighting cancer, you should prioritize the following factors.
- Specialized Services: You don’t need just a great facility with professional and educated staff. You need to find a nursing home care that already has great experience in managing cancer-related symptoms and treatments.
- Communication Practices: You need to be involved and have all important information about your loved one’s condition or any change in a care plan. Look for a facility with proactive staff members who are updating families regularly.
- Access to Oncology Support: Look for a facility that collaborates with nearby hospitals or cancer specialists to ensure comprehensive care. This is a crucial factor for adequate medical care of your loved one.
Conclusion
You are in a difficult situation, and you are probably so scared that you are going to make some mistake that will affect your loved one’s health and overall well-being. But if you do your research thoroughly, look for red flags, ask important questions, and compare all the potential facilities in your region, you will make the best choice for your senior.
Since your senior has cancer, there are some specific factors you should consider when choosing nursing home care, like specialized services, good communication, and access to oncology support. In that way, you will ensure that your loved one receives the best possible medical care.
Additional advice: when you narrow your search down to two or three facilities, go to each one of them and see with your own eyes whether everything is how they say it is. Talk with residents, ask them if they are satisfied and happy there, talk with the staff to see if they are kind and caring, and check the conditions like hygiene and nutrition. In that way, you will know firsthand that you are making a good choice.
