Can a nursing home require a 24 hour sitter?

Yeah.........ha.............my mother, while living in Assisted Living, fell 36 times. THIRTY SIX times. And nobody requested that she have a 24 hour sitter! Most elders are fall risks, which is partly why they're IN Assisted Living or SNFs to begin with!

I work in a Memory Care home and we have a resident with a LOT of issues; her family wants her to have a 24 hr per day sitter (not US), and so they use an agency. I just did the math. The cost for a sitter for 24 hours a day is $18,816.00 per month, not including the monthly rent for the Memory Care!

Ha. Not funny, right?

Hope the Ombudsman says otherwise. If not, time to look for another SNF for mother.

Good luck

Carla6868, I'm wondering if your dad is in actually in an assisted living memory care facility rather than in a skilled nursing home, the latter of which I think should be staffed to provide the level of care your dad needs, while the former would not. My dad was in memory care assisted living with the highest staff to resident ratio (1:6) of any in our area. While he was there I observed that several residents were required to have their own supplemental aides many hours of the day. Other residents, whose care needs consistently exceeded what could normally be provided with the resident to staff ratio and whose families could not provide sufficient supplemental care, were required to move out of the facility, ideally to a skilled nursing facility, but sometimes to just another memory care facility with a lower quality of care standard, and sometimes back to full-time family care. As my dad's condition worsened, even though I assisted him for 2 or 3 hours every day, I was eventually asked to either provide 24-hour supplemental assistance or move him, but he died before I was able to do that. Best wishes for this hard time of your lives.

That's a bunch of nonsense. You don't have to pay one cent. Call your ombudsman. Where do they propose to discharge him to? They can't by law discharge him, unless they want to transfer him to a facility that is able to serve his needs better, or he poses a danger to other residents, but if this is a SNF, his needs should be able to be met.

Carla, check around with other nursing homes in your area to see what are their rules regarding a resident who is a fall risk.

My Dad was a major fall risk and not once did the senior care facility ask that he have around the clock personal caregiver. Same with my Mom who was in the last stage of dementia and in long-term-care.

If you had a care meeting and nothing was said, who had told you about needing 24 hour caregiver? Just curious if it was a Staff member or if it was your Dad who told you this.

Most people in NH are a fall risk. Thats what they are suppose to be providing 24/7 care. I would contact your state Ombudsman and run it by them. The NH should be able to give u the number. If not its under State agencies in the phonebook or online.

If there is no money there is no money. Children are not responsible for the cost either.