Morgantown Nursing Homes Information

Physicians, registered and licensed nurses and nursing aides, non-medical personnel, food and dining workers, therapists and specialists are all involved in running the everyday services of nursing home.

Morgantown skilled nursing facilities bear a monthly residency cost that is very close to the West Virginia median level. Private and semi-private SNF rooms cost $7,376 and $7,001 per month, respectively.

In addition to short-term or long-term care, the two main types of nursing care, facilities also offer certain services to assist in home and family care arrangements. Patients often seek respite care to take some stress off their family caregivers. Respite care consists of days or weeks of nursing care that gives both parties a break from normal treatment. Adult day health care gives patients a safe environment to socialize among peers and receive proper nursing care while their family caregiver is at work. Some area institutions also offer specialized care for patients with medical conditions like dementia. These facilities often house these patients separately from those who need general amenities.

Short-term care consists of rehabilitative services to help patients recuperate from a fall, operation, stroke, cardiac arrest or other acute medical trauma. During hospitalization, these patients were required to seek nursing care by the doctor. Hospital care is an important component to a patient’s recovery. It can impact the length of time a patient needs to spend in a nursing facility. The best hospitals in Morgantown, based on patients’ hospital experiences, are West Virginia University Hospitals and Monongalia County General Hospital. Short-term nursing stays aim to rebuild patients’ strength and functions to pre-trauma levels through various forms of rehabilitation. Nursing professionals prescribe physical, auditory, respiratory, speech and occupational therapy to get patients to a level of health appropriate for assisted living or in home care. When patients are near this level, discharge planners advise them in choosing a local option to continue process of recovery.

Long-term care patients require advanced forms of treatment for chronic, terminal, permanent and progressive illnesses. Long-term facilities admit patients for conditions like osteoarthritis, cancer, emphysema, diabetes mellitus, Alzheimer’s and congestive heart failure. To combat complex symptoms, nursing personnel must respond to swiftly changing conditions and offer around-the-clock supervision to all patients. Nurses and doctors give routine vital sign checks and perform medical procedures like ventilator management, medication adjustment, wound care, CPR, injections and colostomies. Non-medical personnel are present to help patients complete daily living tasks like dressing, washing, feeding and walking. Social workers try to see to patients’ psychosocial welfare by talking and playing games with patients or watching television with them.

Many seniors and their families avoid nursing care due to the stigma attached to the industry. Some people hold the belief that nursing homes are the last stop for dying patients or only see nursing care as something only others need. Recently, this has turned many toward assisted living care instead of skilled care. This causes certain problems because assisted living facilities are not staffed or equipped to handle serious medical conditions. This can lead to gaps in care that do more harm than good to a patient’s illness. In some states it is not legal for assisted living personnel to administer medication. Instead, they can only hand medicine to patients and instruct them to take it. It is important for seniors and their loved ones to heed the advice of their doctor if they are advised to seek a nursing home.