What You May Not See on a Senior Living Tour

When families are choosing a nursing home or assisted living community, the process often starts with a tour. You see the lobby, meet the staff, look at the dining room, review the activities calendar and get a feel for the apartment or room. But there is another side of a community that can be much harder to see, including inspection reports, complaints, citations, penalties and patterns over time. Many families do not even know this information is available, much less where to find it.

That is exactly what happened to Jim De Vico, founder of Senior Living Watch.

Jim’s mother was living in a care facility when she was pushed to the floor by another resident who was struggling with his own condition. She later passed away. Jim eventually learned there had been previous incidents at the facility, but he had not known about them. “I visited her often and didn’t see beneath the veneer the facility presented,” he told me.

When Jim went looking for more information, he discovered that public records did exist but finding them was another matter. Nursing home information was maintained by the federal government, while assisted living information was handled at the state level. That meant families could potentially be looking across dozens of different government sources depending on where someone lived and what type of community they were considering.

With a background in programming and technology, Jim decided to do something about it. A few weeks later, he launched Senior Living Watch.

Today the site includes nursing homes nationwide, along with assisted living communities in California, New York, Florida, Texas, Illinois, Minnesota and Arizona, with additional states being added.

Public information can still be hard to find

One of the things that surprised Jim most was just how difficult the information could be to locate and understand. Some states have searchable databases, but even those can be cumbersome to navigate. Different agencies also organize and present information in different ways.

Senior Living Watch brings the records together and presents them in a more consistent format so families can compare one community with another more easily.

That distinction matters because many senior living websites rely heavily on consumer reviews, and some receive referral fees when a family chooses a community through their site. Jim intentionally took a different approach.

Senior Living Watch focuses on public records and does not add commentary telling families what they should think about a particular facility. His goal is to make the information easier to find, understand and compare.

A citation does not always tell the whole story

Seeing a citation on a community’s record can sound alarming, but Jim says families should look beyond a single finding and consider the bigger picture.

Was the complaint substantiated? Has the same problem appeared repeatedly? How does the community’s record compare with other communities nearby?

As Jim explained, “One dietary citation reads very differently than the same problem cited month after month or year after year.”

Senior Living Watch includes a mapping feature that allows families to see facilities in the surrounding area and compare citations, penalties and reports. The idea is not necessarily to find a community with a completely clean record. It is to give families more information so they can ask better questions.

The research should not stop after move in

One feature of Senior Living Watch especially stood out to me because it addresses something families may not think about.

We often do a lot of research while choosing a community. Once someone moves in, though, that research usually stops.

Senior Living Watch allows families to follow a facility after their family member moves in. The site checks government agencies every night for newly published records, and when a new record appears for a facility someone is following, that person receives an email alert.

Jim says that notification feature was central to his idea from the beginning because it was exactly what he wished he had when his mother was living in a facility.

Instead of having to remember to search a government database periodically, families can be notified when new information becomes available.

What should you do if an alert arrives?

An alert does not automatically mean there is a crisis. Some complaints are investigated and cannot be substantiated. Others may involve relatively minor concerns, while some findings can be much more serious.

Jim describes Senior Living Watch as a news source. It provides the information, and families decide what to do with it based on the circumstances and their own level of concern.

He suggests reading the full report, asking the facility administrator about what happened and what was done in response, and looking to see whether the same issue has appeared before. Families can also compare the facility’s record with others nearby.

If there are ongoing concerns, the local Long-Term Care Ombudsman can also be a valuable resource. The Long-Term Care Ombudsman program is a free service that advocates for people living in nursing homes, assisted living communities and other long-term care settings. Ombudsmen can help residents and families understand their rights, navigate concerns and work toward resolving problems.

Why independence matters

Jim has also made a deliberate choice not to accept facility advertising or paid placement.

Senior Living Watch does offer connections to advisors who can help families with a senior living search, but those advisors are screened and kept separate from the inspection information. Facilities do not pay Senior Living Watch for referrals.

For Jim, that separation is important because the site is designed to function as a reporting tool. Its mantra is “Tell It Straight.”

“If I added paid placement or advertising, then that independence is called into question,” he said.

He has taken a similar approach to user data. Senior Living Watch keeps only the minimum information it needs, primarily a user’s email address and the facilities they choose to follow. Payment information is handled by Stripe rather than stored by Senior Living Watch.

That approach reflects Jim’s background in IT security and his desire to collect as little personal information as possible.

Giving families information they may not know exists

Senior Living Watch grew out of Jim’s personal experience, and that is really what makes the story behind it so compelling.

Most families walking into an assisted living community or nursing home do not know which questions they are failing to ask. They may not know inspection records exist, where complaints are published or that it may be worth continuing to monitor a facility after their parent has moved in.

Jim does. “I want to give people the information I wish I had had before my mother passed away.”

No website, rating or inspection report can tell you everything you need to know about a senior living community, and any record needs context. But public inspection information can give families another window into what is happening behind the lobby and the tour.

Knowing what to look for is the first step toward knowing what questions to ask.

You can learn more about Senior Living Watch at SeniorLiving.Watch.