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.
Personal Care Facilities provide a less intensive level
of care and, generally, do not subscribe to the medical model of
care. Most Personal Care Facilities do not have nurses or physicians
on their staff and provide mainly physical and personal care, such
as assistance with bathing, eating, dressing and toileting.
Generally
speaking, any complex medical or nursing care needed must be performed
by an outside agency such as home health. Public funding is not
available in Texas for Personal Care Facilities. Some Long Term
Care Insurance Policies will pay for care in a Personal Care Facility.
Many Personal Care Facilities have a more home like feeling and
some are actually small homes with just 3 or 4 elderly residents.
3. Does Barton House 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.
4. 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.
5. Does Barton House 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.
We screen our residents carefully to make sure that we can provide the level of care that they need and that they will be a good "fit" with the other residents at Barton House. We also perform assessments to ascertain that the potential resident is able to benefit from the program that we offer.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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 Barton House through a Home Health Agency.
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. 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 the 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 Barton House through presentations, volunteers, sorority visits, and other visitors.
12. When does the resident
have to leave Barton House 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.
13. 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.
14. Are the residents allowed to have
pets?
Yes, we allow pets at Barton House as long as the pet is not too large, and house trained. Each house has a dog that belongs to everyone. In Austin, one of our residents has a cat and another has a cockatiel.
15. 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 Barton House is the residents' home and they should not feel like they are on display.
16. 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.
17. What are the costs
and fees for Barton House?
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