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Nursing
homes are primarily designed to meet the needs of people recuperating from
illness or to provide long-term care nursing supervision for persons with
chronic medical problems.
Nursing
homes provide different levels of care. In
Arkansas nursing homes contract with the State to provide differing levels of
care to residents depending upon their medical needs.
These four levels of care are:
Skilled:
Resident requires constant assessment of needs and plan of care.
Requires heavy care i.e., Tube Feeding, IV Therapy, Ventilator, Stage III
or IV Pressure Sore.
Intermediate
I: Resident
is totally dependent in three areas of Activities of Daily Living (ADLs): ambulation,
toileting, and feeding.
Intermediate
II: Resident
requires moderate assistance in ADLs, but can be totally dependent in one or two
areas.
Intermediate
III: Resident requires minimum assistance
with ADLs, generally needs supervision for protection.
Nursing
homes try to maintain the appropriate staff ratio for the varying levels of
care, by not taking too many residents within any one particular care level.
It is important to inquire how many other residents the nursing home has
at the level of care that your loved one will require.
This will help you to identify if the nursing home has enough staff
to receive another resident. It is
also a good time to ask what the staff ratio is on the wing your loved one will
reside.
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