Web site helps simplify search for long-term care
Published 9:00 pm Sunday, May 20, 2001
By Sharon Salyer
Herald Writer
It’s a problem nearly every family will face, yet few are prepared for:
An elderly parent or other family member is about to be discharged from a hospital. They aren’t well enough to take care of themselves at home. You have 72 hours to find a solution to where they will be cared for.
With long-term care often costing $2,000 to $4,000 a month, the financial stakes are high.
Total Living Choices, a Seattle company that operates an online Web site, provides free help. It lists more than 68,000 long-term care providers nationally — and 378 state licensed facilities in Snohomish County — that can be sorted by city or zip code.
Each is given a rating of one to five stars, based on reports by state or federal inspectors, an independent inspection by someone working for the online company trained in social work, and the types of services and amenities it provides.
Some facilities include online tours of their buildings, with pictures of rooms and dining areas, so families can see what’s available prior to an on-site visit.
The idea for the Web site sprang from the experience of founder Ted Tansase, whose sister had a stoke and was about to be discharged from a Santa Barbara hospital.
"Being an Internet man, he jumped on the Web to try to get on top of this problem to find places to move her into," said Kay Seim, a vice president and board member of Total Living Choices. "Basically, he found endless lists of facilities unknown to him."
Tansase wound up flying to southern California to visit an assisted-living facility, only to discover that what his sister instead needed was a nursing home, where more intensive medical assistance is available.
Thirty years ago, the choices were limited, Seim said. If out-of-hospital care was needed, people were sent to nursing homes.
"Now there’s assisted living facilities, adult family homes, and continuing care retirement communities. That’s all very good. But I think it increases confusion for families. Often times, they’re not certain where to start or wind up."
So explanations of the three types of long-term care are provided online.
State licensed facilities in Washington include: nursing homes, providing care for patients with chronic health problems requiring around-the-clock care by a nurse; boarding homes (also called assisted living) and adult family homes, which care for those who need more limited assistance, such as help with dressing or bathing.
Online information also is available on a variety of related topics, including elders who want to stay in their homes but need in-home help, paying for long-term care, what to look for on a visit to a perspective long-term care facility, and Alzheimer’s disease.
Among the experts the company asked to provide answers to these questions is Nancy Hooyman, dean of the University of Washington School of Social Work, who is also on the company’s board of directors.
Hooyman said Total Living Choices is the only for-profit business for which she’s agreed to serve as a board member.
Among the reasons she decided to join former Gov. Booth Gardner and others on the 10-member governing body: It provides its information free to the public.
"It’s very comprehensive, there’s just nothing like this," she said of the online service.
Marty Richards, an affiliate assistant professor at the UW’s Institute on Aging, said information like that provided at www.totallivingchoices.com "is a good starting place" for families seeking long-term care information.
"But nobody should go strictly on the basis of what they read on the Internet," she said.
"This could be a first screening for a facility, so you don’t have to see 50 facilities, you can see five," Richards said.
You can call Herald Writer Sharon Salyer at 425-339-3486
or send e-mail to salyer@heraldnet.com.
