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Agecare Asked February 2016

What's the difference between skilled nursing faculty, long term care facility, and nursing home?

What's the difference between skilled nursing faculty, long term care facility, and nursing home? It seems like people use these terms, but it is unclear to me what the difference is between them all. How do I know what is best for my loved one? Help! Thanks.

freqflyer Feb 2016
I remember decades back elders would move to "rest homes". I remember one TV episode of "Adam 12" when an elder was lost in the city. Back at the rest home others were talking to the police, and the residents looked like they were in their 50's and 60's :P

BarbBrooklyn Feb 2016
"Selecting a nursing home in nys" the link to nys doh is a good one.

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BarbBrooklyn Feb 2016
Age, the NYS dept of health website has a good explanation of these terms. I looked at the Massachusetts site and didn't find a similar explanation. In addition, there are acute rehabs and sub acute rehabs. After her stroke, my mom was in acute (therapy 2-3 times per day) for about a week and then transferred to subacute ( therapy once a day) for several more weeks.

Google the nys doh nursing home website.

Christine73 Feb 2016
I've never heard the term "long term care facility," but it seems more broad than the others. "Skilled nursing facility" is just a modern name for what used to be called a "nursing home."

Agecare Feb 2016
My mom was in two different rehabs recently. One was literally across the street from the other. One referred to itself as skilled nursing and the other long term care. In MA where my parents live, they are covered differently from an insurance point of view. When the rehab explained long term care, it sounded a lot like a nursing home, but they were clear in saying they weren't a nursing home. Apparently, insurance covers things differently for each. It's all so confusing to me.

cwillie Feb 2016
I agree with FF, it often seems to be a regional thing. Where I live in Ontario Canada we used to always talk about people going to the retirement home or nursing home. The gov't in it's wisdom decided that we needed to better distinguish between different levels of care and the two terms have been banished. Now we have assisted living and long term care, which are regulated, as well as other options such as independent living.

freqflyer Feb 2016
Agecare, I always wondered about that, too. It could be a local thing, where in one part of the country such facilities are called "skilled nursing" where in the other part of the country it is "long-term-care" or just plain "nursing home".

And I have seen people call a nursing home "Assisted Living" which could mean different things depending on location, too.

I tend to use the term continuing care facility.

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