Frequently Asked Questions about Assisted Living
  

Are you a Nursing Home?
No. We are an Assisted Living Facility.


What is the difference between a Nursing Home and an Assisted Living Facility?
Nursing Homes provide a more intensive level of care than a Personal Care Facility. Nursing Home residents usually have complex medical conditions that require interventions such as injections, feeding tubes or restraint. Nursing homes are required to have nurses around the clock who provide and supervise the care of their patients. Nursing homes also are oriented toward a medical model of care, with physicians on staff. Some Nursing Homes receive public funding such as Medicare and Medicaid and most Long Term Care Insurance policies pay for Nursing Home care.


What is assisted living?
The Assisted Living Federation of America (ALFA) defines an assisted living residence as a special combination of housing, personalized supportive services and health care designed to meet the needs - both scheduled and unscheduled - of those seniors who need help with activities of daily living (ADL), such as bathing, dressing, eating and monitoring medications.


Who lives in assisted living communities?
Assisted living is generally for those seniors who can no longer manage on their own but who do not need the intensive, 24-hour complex medical care of traditional long-term care The average assisted living resident is 83 years old and requires assistance with two ADLs.


Is assisted living covered by my insurance, Medicare or Medicaid?
Although assisted living residents or their families generally pay privately for assisted living, many long-term insurance policies now cover assisted living services. While Medicare does not cover assisted living, some states have Medicaid waivers for some assisted living services. You can contact a Senior Quarters in your community to see if your state offers assisted living waivers.


How is the care managed?
Care for residents is provided by a care management staff available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Care managers are supervised by an assisted living coordinator or a Reminiscence coordinator in the Reminiscence Neighborhood for residents with Alzheimer's disease or other memory impairments. Medication care managers are supervised by a wellness nurse who is on site from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The wellness nurse conducts wellness checks monthly, acts as liaison with visiting outside health providers and communicates regularly with resident family members and physicians regarding changes in the health status of each resident. The entire staff is overseen by the executive director of the home.


What if a resident requires specialized services?
Senior Quarters works with outside home health, rehab, therapy and hospice agencies as necessary to ensure each resident receives the proper care. We provide transportation to scheduled doctor appointments and will arrange for the proper transportation for any needed hospital visits.


Do you offer respite and hospice care?
Senior Quarters Assisted Living homes offer short-term respite and hospice assisted living care as space permits, welcoming every resident with equal warmth.


What sets Senior Quarters apart from other providers?
Senior Quarters Assisted Living is made special by its award-winning architectural and interior design, its innovative programs, its industry-guiding principles and its mission-oriented team.


Does Senior Quarters have Nurses on staff?
Yes. We have a Nurse Manager who manages the home and oversees the care of each resident. Our nurses will also work with the resident's physician when minor illnesses or medication problems arise. The Nurse Manager is usually available during normal business hours. We also provide basic first aid.


What are your staffing ratios?
During waking hours, our staffing ratios range from 1 direct care staff for every 4-6 residents. During sleeping hours, our ratio is 1 awake direct care staff (and one back up staff who is asleep) for 16 residents. Our nurse to resident ratio never goes over one nurse for 16 residents and at times is lower.


Does Senior Quarters take care of people with all types of Dementia?
The types of Dementia that we see most frequently at Barton House are Alzheimer's type and Vascular type. We will perform pre-admission assessments and evaluations on individuals with other types of Dementia.


Do you provide day care or respite care?
We offer day care and brief trial periods when our staff or the family has doubts or concerns about how the resident will function in our environment. We do not provide either of these services to individuals who are not potential residents.


Do you help residents take their medication?
Absolutely! In fact, we supervise or administer all of the resident's medication, as we believe that this aspect of care is dangerous for the residents to cope with on their own. All resident medication is kept in a locked medication room in the office.


What about over-the-counter medications, nutritional supplements and herbal remedies?
We will gladly supervise or administer any substance that the resident's physician prescribes that can be given through a non-invasive route. We must have a physician's order for all substances that are supervised or administered. All substances that we supervise or administer must be labeled by a pharmacy. Residents are not allowed to keep any type of medication or other potentially dangerous items/substances in their room. We cannot give injections, intravenous, or tube feedings. In many instances some of these types of medications can be provided at Senior Quarters through a Home Health Agency.


Can you provide special diets?
We are able to provide certain modified diets such as those that would be regularly prepared at home. Those include but are not limited to: No Added or Concentrated Sugar, No Added Salt, and certain food allergies such as shellfish. Our regular diet is specially designed for individuals with Dementia. It is attractive, flavorful, high calorie, high fiber, high fat, high nutrient, easily chewable and easy to eat with limited motor skills.


Do you provide transportation to and from appointments?
Because of our small size, it is difficult for us to provide transportation for the residents. Only in certain special circumstances can we provide transportation. The cost of these services are passed on to the family without any mark-up. In the event of an emergency we call EMS or another ambulance service to transport the resident to an appropriate medical facility.


Do you take the residents on field trips?
Because of the nature of dementia and the limitations that our residents have, we believe that to safely provide field trips we would have to have one staff for each resident once we left the facility. Many times, although the residents express the desire to leave the facility, once they leave, they feel insecure, anxious and uncomfortable. For these reasons we have yet to have any facility sponsored field trips. Instead, we try to bring the community to Senior Quarters through presentations, volunteers, sorority visits, and other visitors.


When does the resident have to leave Senior Quarters and go to another type of facility like a Nursing Home?
The simple answer to this question is "when we can no longer provide the level of care that the resident needs." This decision is difficult to make in some situations. We work with the family in deciding when a resident needs to be moved, either temporarily or permanently, to a more appropriate level of care. An acute medical crisis, (such as stroke or heart attack) necessitates an immediate resident transfer. The majority of our residents stay with us until within a few weeks of the end of their lives.


What type of Activity Program do you provide?
Because individuals with Dementia need routine and structure, our Activity Program is designed to structure the residents day from the time that they arise throughout the day, until they go to bed. The Activity Program is designed to accentuate our residents' strengths and minimize their disabilities. We incorporate hygiene and activities of daily living into the program. The activities are designed to stimulate cognition, movement, communication and socialization.


Are the residents allowed to have pets?
Yes, we allow pets at Senior Quarters as long as the pet is not too large, and house trained. Each house has a dog that belongs to everyone. In our Albany residence, one of our residents has a cat and another has a cockatiel.


May I drop in for a tour?
We provide tours by appointment only. Our residents find tours during certain times of the day to be disruptive. We have several requests for tours each day and to honor all of these requests is not conducive to a calm environment. We believe that Senior Quarters is the residents' home and they should not feel like they are on display.


When can I visit?
We have no set visiting hours. Families are welcome at any time of the day or night. In fact, some of our families from out of town spend the night in the house when we have room. We strongly encourage the families to be involved in the resident's life. It gives the residents continuity. Families are also welcome to have meals with the residents, free of charge. We ask that you give us a few hours notice so that our kitchen staff can make sure there is enough food for everyone. The residents may leave with family any time the family wants to take them out. We do ask that you sign them out and back in and let on of the staff know you are leaving with them so that we are sure where they are. We do not allow residents to leave unaccompanied. We will not let a resident leave with someone that we are unfamiliar with unless we first obtain permission from the family.


What are the costs and fees for Senior Quarters?
To start the application process we require a $250 non-refundable application fee. This fee is to assist us to defray the costs of our time in reviewing resident records, assessing and interviewing the resident, their family and care givers. This also helps prevent people who are not seriously interested in a place at Senior Quarters from making frivolous applications. The monthly cost differs from facility to facility, but it is generally in the range of $112 to $135 per day. We also require a security deposit that is equal to one month's rent. The deposit is held in an account until the resident leaves the facility. The deposit is used to cover damages beyond usual wear-and-tear, unpaid incidental costs and unpaid rent.


What services does the rent cover?
The rent is fairly inclusive. It covers personal laundry including linens except dry cleaning (we do not accept cleaning responsibility for clothing that is dry clean only), housekeeping services, activities, meals, snacks, and personal care (assistance with bathing, grooming, dressing, eating, toileting, administration and supervision of medication and minor treatments such as first aid).


What services are not covered by the rent?
Generally speaking, the services that are not covered are services that are not required by all residents or special products that are individual to each resident. Examples of these are: Beauty Shop services, incontinence products, medications, doctor visits, in room phone and cable service, walkers, canes and other assistive device