Houston nursing homes give dedicated short-term and long-term care to seniors that cannot take care of themselves. Skilled nursing facilities are fully-staffed medical facilities that provide intensive medical care for seniors that are rehabilitating from an injury or medical condition or are debilitated by a severe medical condition. Houston skilled nursing facilities give seniors many options for both short-term and long-term care. Seniors are usually forced in to short-term care to recover from the effects of a heart attack, a stroke or broken bones. Once seniors have sufficiently recovered during a nursing stay, they resume their lives or continue receiving care at an assisted living facility or through in-home care. Long-term facilities are tailored to help its residents cope with the activities of daily living such as dressing, washing, eating, walking and using the bathroom.
The cost of nursing care is an important subject to understand, especially with regards to long-term care. Our site aims to help seniors and their families search Houston area nursing home options to meet both financial and skilled care needs. In Houston, the average 2012 monthly cost of a semi-private nursing home room is $4,578, while a private room has a monthly cost of $6,175. Semi-private rooms cost more than $600 more than Texas median levels. Private rooms cost over $1,000 more than the state median.
Houston SNF residents are usually turned over to nursing care after a hospital admission. If a recovery period or long-term care is necessary, a doctor will require seniors to admit into a nursing home. Doctors must preapprove nursing home stays for Medicare to pay for coverage. After a qualifying hospital stay, a minimum of three days, Medicare will cover a 20 day nursing home stay. For seniors that qualify for Medicare’s nursing facility benefits, coverage will run out after 100 days of care in one benefit period.
In the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems, Texas State hospitals fare slightly better than the national average in patients’ satisfaction with their hospital stays. The best quality hospitals include Methodist Hospital, St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital, Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center and Menninger Clinic.
Nursing homes have gotten a bad rap for many legitimate reasons. Many seniors do not believe they need nursing care, making it hard for personnel to properly tend to them. Caregivers, even those well-trained, have a hard time recognizing patients’ problems because they cannot communicate. It is a situation that creates strain on all parties involved; senior patients, their families and even the caregivers. Our site wants to give seniors and their loved ones the opportunity to find the skilled nursing care that is best for their mental, physical and financial health.