Q. Often, families have to decide on a nursing home with short notice. How can they choose wisely?

A. Watson: Usually people are looking for a facility that is close to their home, so they can still visit and be involved. Sometimes that is the deciding factor. What our staff can do is give them information, even if it's a short turnaround, on facilities that we have had questions about. We give them information about facilities where families have said, "This has really been a good experience for us" versus those where there might have been a series of complaints or questions about.

Q. Does the nursing-home licensing and inspection process work?

Boling: There has been an ongoing debate in Washington as to whether the old quality assurance model, which involves essentially surveys and punitive actions, is the best approach to improving health care. Or whether a more modernized approach which would involve performance improvement on a continuing basis linked to rewards as well as risking punishment would be more effective. I think the quality assurance model can be effective and that having teeth in the regulatory process to ensure the safety of older individuals is critical. However, it is very much dependent on the judgment, experience and skill of the individuals doing the survey. That is not consistent. Some are better than others.

Q. When you get complaints about nursing homes, do you pass them along to the facilities?

Watson: We also work very close with the nursing homes in terms of providing in-service training for the staff. We do see it as a partnership because I think it really is everybody's responsibility to make sure we have the best quality of care we can get.

Q. What are options to nursing homes.

Hylton: Our research shows that at least 85 percent of our members across the state want to stay in their homes and be independent as long as possible. In many areas, there is a need for in-home assistance, in-home services. We are working to make those more available around the state.

Q. Is the industry ready for the group of boomers expected to need nursing-home care?

Watson: There is always more work to do, but we have different levels of facilities now, different levels of care; for people who are not quite ready for nursing-home care, we have assisted living. We have the continuing care communities that at one time were pretty much out of the reach of people who didn't have the resources. We are seeing more communities developed to try to serve a range of needs, to serve more diverse people so that people can go into a facility independently, and if they need assisted living that's provided, and then there's nursing-home care provided.

Q. What should potential long-term-care users be doing now?

Watson: The baby boomers, we do have a huge responsibility to start doing our homework for ourselves to try to figure out what direction we want as well as be advocates for some of the policy directions we need to take.

Q. How can CareCompass, a new program at Senior Connections, help?

Watson: That is a program we are using to promote our work with caregivers. In other words, tell us what your needs are, and we will do whatever we can to help connect you with the resources. That would include nursing homes. We would do the research and get the information they need. Again, not recommending but giving them information so they can make the best decision possible.
Contact Tammie Smith at (804) 649-6572 or TLsmith@timesdispatch.com.