Key Questions to Ask When Touring a Potential Adult Family Home or Assisted Living Community
When touring an adult family home or assisted living community for your loved one, there are some very important questions you should ask regarding their care. These questions are essential, whether you’re working with an agent like Calm Harbor Placements or searching on your own. You may be visiting several settings, memories can get fuzzy, and it can become difficult to keep each place straight in your mind. To make this process easier, I've outlined the most important questions to ask and why they matter. At the end of the article, you'll also find a downloadable checklist to help you keep everything organized during your visits.
Factors to Consider
Your decision will likely be based on a combination of factors:
The costs and your financial obligation
The convenience of the adult family home location
The quality and nature of the care provided
The layout of the home
The quality of the room
The configuration of the room, whether it is a shared room/bathroom or private
How you felt when you entered the home and met the providers
The last one is likely most important. These first impressions are critical, and your sense of how welcome you feel is a good reflection of things to come. Because each setting is unique, it is not like comparing apples to apples, but more like comparing apples to a bowl of fruit. That’s why it’s so helpful to standardize your questions during the tour, making it easier for you to do your comparison.
Understanding the Providers and Their Approach
Sometimes you will look at two or more homes that are owned by the same person, so in general their policy for each home will be the same. More commonly, though, you will meet providers who have individual homes and each will have their own established policies. Each one should have a “disclosure of services” form. Be sure to ask for it! It outlines the following:
what the provider is responsible for
what they can and can’t provide
what the client is responsible for
To help you get to know them and their long-term commitment, be sure to ask:
How long have you owned this home and do you live in the home?
Do you plan to continue doing this work or do you have plans to retire soon or sell this business?
Financials, Fees, and Future Costs
Some homes charge a one-time facility fee to cover the extra costs of initiating care with an individual, such as chart set up, wear and tear on the home when furniture is brought in, extra time it takes to assist a new person and get to know them, medication ordering, special equipment to be obtained and put in place, etc.
Some homes cover the costs of services such as nurse delegation, annual and as-needed reassessments, and incontinence products. Others do not and will bill you each month for them. Some homes can provide transportation to/from MD appointments. You will want to ask about this service and its cost if you choose to use it. Some homes raise their fees annually at an expected rate, while others may raise fees when the client’s needs increase.
It is important to know what to expect going forward. No one approach is right or wrong. It’s simply helpful in your planning and budgeting to know these things ahead of time. When it comes to your budget, you’ll want to ask:
Is there a “move-in” fee on top of my monthly fee?
Who is your Nurse Delegator, and is the fee for nurse delegation covered in my monthly fee or is it a separate fee that I need to pay?
I understand an annual reassessment is a state requirement; is the annual reassessment fee covered in my monthly rate, or is it a separate cost? If separate, what is that cost?
Are items such as gloves, incontinence products and lotions/shampoo included in my monthly rate?
Do you provide any transportation to/from MD visits? If so, what is the cost for this?
Will my monthly fee increase as my loved one’s needs increase, or is it based on an annual increase? What can I expect as far as future costs go?
Essential Services and Daily Life
The day-to-day care and well-being of your loved one are what matter most. Don’t hesitate to ask detailed questions about the services they provide, the activities available, and the overall feel of the home.
Do you have awake staff at night?
What is your staff ratio of caregivers in the daytime and at night?
What level of care do you offer (one-person assist, two-person assist, hoyer lift, dementia care, etc.)?
Do you use a Home Doctor for your adult family home? If yes, who do you use and what is the cost?
Do you have podiatry services? Dental hygiene services? Any other in-house services?
Do you have any activities that happen regularly? If so, what do you offer?
What are your visiting hours and special requests for friends or family visiting?
May I bring my dog to visit? Do you need any vet records or vaccine records if I bring my dog?
May I bring my loved one lunch or a meal, or special foods or snacks to keep in their room?
Can you accommodate a large family visit for events such as birthdays or special occasions?
Navigating Medicaid
If you anticipate your loved one will run out of funding and need to be on Medicaid, asking about this policy is critical. Some homes choose not to accept Medicaid, and it’s much easier to find a home for a Medicaid client BEFORE they need to be on Medicaid. Some homes require 1-year private pay and some require 5 years private pay before converting to Medicaid. Again, some do not accept Medicaid at all, so finding this out prior to making your decision is recommended.
Do you convert to Medicaid if my loved one runs out of money?
If yes, how many years of private pay do you require?
Ultimately, the most important part of finding the right home is trusting your own instincts and feeling confident that your loved one will receive compassionate, quality care.
To make your tours simpler, I've created a downloadable checklist of my recommended questions.
Finding the right senior care is a big step, and I would be honored to help you on this journey. We can approach it together in a calm and systematic way.
