How does one pick a skilled nursing/rehab facility for an elderly parent?

Baton Rouge Rehab. You're welcome.

Should have said I need a place in Shreveport.

Copied and pasted from a previous post I did.

I currently work at a nursing home. When I was hired here, the executive director was the one who actually wrote the textbook you would study from if you want to take your test to get your nursing home license to run one.

Best advice I can give you is what he told me the day he interviewed me. When touring a nursing home, as you walk from the front to the back, pay attention to the smell.

Obviously if you smell urine and bad smells throughout the entire building, stay away from it. If all you smell throughout the entire facility is cleaning products, stay away from it because they are masking problems.

For the most part, it should be like your house, where you don’t smell anything. I’m not talking like smelling something in front of one room where someone had an accident, but the facility is a whole


There are some really good ones and some really bad ones, do your homework before you put your loved one in one. Also go online to the state surveys, and look at their rankings. They’re ranked by a star rating, one through five, with five being the highest. This is not yelp scores or something like that, it’s based off of state inspection, surveys, and such. Do your homework before you put a loved one in a nursing home.

Have someone check on her every day. They know who comes to check every day.

They all suck. Just try and find ones that suck the least.

Visit one that you have heard good things about, but don’t let them know that you are interested in using their services.

Upon arrival pay attention to the smell. If it smells clean then it is. If it smells like a mixture of urine and Lysol, they are trying to cover up the smell instead of actually cleaning the place.

Next, watch the CNAs interact with the patients. If they truly care for the patients, the staff will be attentive.

Tour a few if possible. Short-term or long term?

If short term- ask about re-hospitalization rates and speak to the therapy staff directly. Check for attentiveness of nurses and CNA’s

If long term- check for nurse and cna attentiveness. talk to administrator, ask about staff retention rates. If you see a few residents around talk to them politely about the place. Ask about the food.

Good luck. The hospital gave us a list with “good grades,” they all sucked. Plus it’s who has room. And then we went daily and quick called the director and had a family meeting with her when we found some issues. When they know you are watching, they do better.

For those in BR, BR Rehab is good. But gotta be a BR General patient, I think. We were at the lake.

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Baton Rouge Rehab.

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Number one in the state. However diagnosis and insurance plays a factor. If you have a Medicare replacement such as people’s health or Humana likely they won’t cover. They usually want to send to a cheaper skilled nursing facility (nursing home).

What is diagnosis? Are they in hospital now? Social worker/case management can help with this. PT/OT will have to evaluate for physical need.

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But gotta be a BR General patient, I think.

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Not true at all. I work for the Lake- we use BRRH. It’s insurance that frequently denies.