Overview of Long-Term Care Settings and Services

This section provides information on various settings in which long-term care services and supports are delivered.  For detailed information, we refer you to our Voices for Quality Care Handbook.

 

Nursing Homes

 

Choosing a Nursing Home:  The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has this subject well-covered.  We refer you to them.  One of the first things to do in selecting a nursing home is to check on the quality of care in facilities near enough to family or friends to afford frequent visits.  To evaluate nursing homes, go to the  Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services Nursing Home Compare Website .   For more detailed information on choosing a nursing home, go to the CMS website Your Guide to Choosing a Nursing Home or Other Long-Term Care.  This website also includes a handy checklist.  

 

 

Assisted Living Facilities

 

Allthough there are no federal regulations covering assisted living facilities as there are for nursing homes, in all of the four states where Voices has volunteer members, people living in assisted living facilities and their friends and families have state laws and regulations that give some rights and all are entitled to the services of the Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program. Ombudsmen can be particularly helpful in resolving issues in Assisted Living Facilities. 

Insights into Assisted Living Facilities from those who have been there. 

Where to find information on Assisted Living Facilities:

  • National:  Assisted Living Consumer Alliance

    • ALCA contains a large amount of information on Assisted Living Facilities and the laws and regulations that govern them both state-by-state and in the nation as a whole 
  • Maryland:  Maryland Health Care Commission

    • This web site carries information for Assisted Living Facilities in Maryland only

 

 

In-Home Care

 

There is, underway, a significant movement away from institutional settings for people needing long-term care services and supports toward the provision of those services in one’s own home. In most states there are fairly robust programs designed to help people living in nursing homes to move into a less restrictive setting. This includes moving to or remaining in a home of one’s own or living with a friend or relative. This can also include moving into an assisted living facility if the facility provides separate, individual apartments with locking doors and other specific requirements. There are a number of considerations that need to be addressed particularly if one is moving out of a nursing home into an in-home care situation. We will be adding information on in-home care to this page periodically as it becomes available.

Printable checklist for moving to in-home care (Microsoft Word file)