Looking for a nursing home that offers top-quality care? Look no further than Dimensions Living Burr Ridge, a leading, skilled nursing facility in Burr Ridge, WI.
Across America, more than 800,000 people now live in assisted living. Many of these nursing facilities vary widely in quality and it can be time consuming for patients and family members to find out about the services they offer.
There are different star ratings for nursing facilities. But many people don’t know about these rating systems and how they work. Do you know about the different facilities that are ranked in Illinois’ Cook and DuPage counties?
Our Burr Ridge nursing facility has a five-star rating. If you want to learn more about all the advantages available at Dimensions Living Burr Ridge, keep reading. We’ll explain why our five-star rating is something to get excited about!
More Registered Nurses
Most five-star facilities attain their top ranking because they employ a higher number of registered nurses than other facilities.
More registered nurses on-site means your loved ones will experience better outcomes. It allows their health conditions to be better monitored and gives the residents more care and support.
People in nursing facilities need a lot of extra care. Registered nurses can help with everything from checking vitals to helping residents to avoid slips and falls.
This is especially important when providing dementia or memory care, and helping patients with other complex conditions. Having a more hands-on deck helps avoid accidents while providing more 1:1 care for patients.
More Support Staff
Registered nurses aren’t the only important staff members in a nursing home. Nurses are supported by nurse aides—also known as certified nursing assistants (CNAs)— and other practitioners.
Five-star facilities have higher levels of support staff, too. Although these other staff members are not as highly qualified as registered nurses, they provide vital care and services.
By helping residents with personal needs, like feeding and daily tasks, certified nurses can focus on supporting complex clinical needs
Ultimately, by having more staff available, the facility is a safer, more pleasant place to be. Even something that may seem simple, like having an extra staff member to visit with, can help patients enjoy a better quality of life.
Lower Registered Nurse and Support Staff Turnover
Registered nurses and CNAs stick around longer at five-star facilities. By having tenured staff, facilities provide better continuity of care and, again, better health and wellness outcomes.
Low staff turnover is one criteria that helps a nursing facility to reach five stars and reflects well on the facility in general. Staff members are more inclined to stay with their employer if conditions at the facility are pleasant.
New or temporary staff members do not always know the facilities proper processes upon their immediate start-date, so they tend to make more mistakes than long-term staff. This can cause a higher risk of accidents and reduce the amount of time staff members can spend with each resident. It may also be distressing for residents who have to constantly get used to new staff members.
Better Medicaid/Medicare Reimbursements
If you are admitting a relative to a nursing facility, it’s only natural that you’ll be concerned about the costs. If you have Medicaid/Medicare coverage for your relative, you can expect to receive financial support through Medicaid reimbursements, and at a five-star nursing facility you can receive higher reimbursements.
The higher reimbursements given to 5-star facilities are primarily intended to incentivize and reward high-quality care. Nursing homes that receive a 5-star rating are considered to be among the best in the country, and they are eligible for higher Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements as a result. According to a report by the Department of Health and Human Services, nursing homes that received a 5-star rating from CMS in 2016 received an average of $241 per day in Medicare reimbursement, while those that received a 1-star rating received an average of $185 per day. This represents a difference of over $2,000 per month in reimbursements.
This can be crucial for your finances, making the cost far more manageable.
Higher Consistency in Administration
At any nursing facility, administration professionals are important. These are the people who run the whole facility, making decisions about the overarching policies and overseeing operations.
Five-star-rated facilities have more consistency in their administration, which means they have more consistency in policies and personnel. It may also indicate that the administration is doing something right if they’ve been in charge for a long time!
When administrators are replaced at a rapid rate, it indicates there may be some underlying issue in the facility. Although it’s tough at the top, no facility should be changing its administrators every year or so.
Understanding the Rating System
In the United States, all nursing homes are rated between one five stars. These ratings are assessed based-on six different criteria. The facility receives a point-score for each of the different criteria and then is awarded an overall star rating.
The ratings for each criterion are decided by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). This is a body of experienced senior living and care professionals who look carefully at facilities to give them a rating.
CMS representatives regularly visit facilities to complete thorough inspections. During these visits, they learn more about how the facility is managed and what the day-to-day processes are like in the facility.
The star-rating system for nursing homes helps individuals who work outside of long-term care/senior living understand the quality of care and services provided by these facilities by providing a simple and accessible way to evaluate them.
The star ratings are based on several quality measures that reflect important aspects of care, such as staffing levels, health inspections, and resident outcomes. These measures are standardized across all nursing homes, which makes it easy to compare facilities and identify those that are providing high-quality care.
The star rating system also provides a way for individuals to see how nursing homes are performing over time. CMS updates the ratings on a regular basis, so individuals can track a facility’s performance and see if it is improving or declining.
This can be particularly useful for individuals who are looking for a nursing home for a loved one or who are considering working at a facility. By using the star ratings as a guide, they can make more informed decisions about the quality of care and services that are provided.
A five-star rating represents excellence in every possible sphere. Only around 10% of nursing homes attain the top ranking, but most nursing homes aspire to reach this ranking.
Find Out More About Our Five-Star Nursing Facility
We’re proud to say Dimensions Living Burr Ridge is one of the best in the state. We pride ourselves on keeping our residents at the top of our priority list. That’s why CMS has rated Dimensions Living Burr Ridge with five stars!
If you’re ready to take the next steps, we’re always here to talk. We’ll discuss your needs with you and help you to find an excellent nursing facility. Contact us today to find out more about how we can help.
