Any nursing home facility in or around Orlando? (Jacksonville, Tampa: how much, house)

[xofruitcake]

We are in our 60s and looking for an area to retire to. We are currently in Northern California near SF and active. At some point (may be 10-15 years from now), we will look into assitant living and may be full nursing home facility. We would like to be in a city with all the facility avilable. Anyone has knowledge of the assitant / nursing home facility availability around the city? thanks

[Arcenal813]

There are literally tons of them all over the place. What information do you need exactly?

[kyle19125]

Are you looking in Orlando specifically for some reason or somewhere in Florida?

[xofruitcake]

Originally Posted by Arcenal352

There are literally tons of them all over the place. What information do you need exactly?

I am in the initial research stage of finding a retirement area to move to. Two of e very important factors are healthcare and nursing home/assistant living facility down the road. I am happy with the information I gathered regarding healthcare in Orlando. What is not clear is wheather the nursing home / assistant living facility around Orlando is any good and how much they cost. I find some information that indicate assistant living to be around 40k or so a year and continuous care is around 90k or so a year. Some nursing home facilities that I came across has 2 stars rating and a few is 4 stars, I am wondering if anyone has friends or relative that is in one of this facility and can share their experience..

[bmw335xi]

Lots of them in Orlando, some are really nice too.

[kyle19125]

Originally Posted by xofruitcake

I am in the initial research stage of finding a retirement area to move to. Two of e very important factors are healthcare and nursing home/assistant living facility down the road. I am happy with the information I gathered regarding healthcare in Orlando. What is not clear is wheather the nursing home / assistant living facility around Orlando is any good and how much they cost. I find some information that indicate assistant living to be around 40k or so a year and continuous care is around 90k or so a year. Some nursing home facilities that I came across has 2 stars rating and a few is 4 stars, I am wondering if anyone has friends or relative that is in one of this facility and can share their experience..

Having gone through the process very recently with elder parents I can assure you the "star system" is virtually worthless. Others I have had contact with regarding the star system of ratings have confirmed my suspicions that a four of five star designation is not a rating to base decisions on. Visiting the facilities you've narrowed to and doing a Google search for real world reviews would be a good start in my opinion. Given residency at a nursing home or assisted living facility is going to limit your travel out/about I'm still not certain why the focus on Orlando when top-rated healthcare options exist equally or more so in places like Jacksonville (Mayo Clinic, UF Health and Baptist Health), Tampa (Tampa General and Florida Hospital) or even Gainesville (UF-Shands Hospital).

[xofruitcake]

Originally Posted by kyle19125

Having gone through the process very recently with elder parents I can assure you the "star system" is virtually worthless. Others I have had contact with regarding the star system of ratings have confirmed my suspicions that a four of five star designation is not a rating to base decisions on. Visiting the facilities you've narrowed to and doing a Google search for real world reviews would be a good start in my opinion. Given residency at a nursing home or assisted living facility is going to limit your travel out/about I'm still not certain why the focus on Orlando when top-rated healthcare options exist equally or more so in places like Jacksonville (Mayo Clinic, UF Health and Baptist Health), Tampa (Tampa General and Florida Hospital) or even Gainesville (UF-Shands Hospital).

I read most if not all the threads in this forum regarding health care in Orlando and it seems like most folks here are happy with Florida hospital and Orlando health in Orlando. Do you have a different opinion regarding health care in Orlando? Right now my wife and I are in our very late 50s and reasonably healthy. But I can see down the line that we may need to hire part time helps, move into assistant care facility and eventually continuous care facility when we get much older. Right now we live in Greater San Francisco area and domestic help are very hard to come by and quality is questionsble at best. Orlando seems to be a good location to grow old in but understanding the quality of the assistant and continuous care quality and cost in the area is one of our top priority and hence the question and hoping that someone can share their experience. Can you share your experience of helping your parent?

[kmarc]

You might be interested in a community that has something called "continuity of care", where people start out in a 55+ community for active adults who live independently in their own home, then move to assisted living when they need it and eventually to a nursing home at the end. Where I used to live, I used to know a lady who lived with her husband in the 55+ community, and then they sold their house and moved to assisted living. She was in good health, but her husband needed some help, so they went to assisted living, where cooking and cleaning were provided, along with some assistance for her husband.

With continuity of care, the assisted living and nursing home facilities are usually not part of the 55+ community, but just outside, or in a separate area close by. I don't know about Orlando, because I only lived there for a few months, but south of Tampa, there is Sun City Center and Kings Point, which are 55+, and they have the assisted living facilities and nursing homes there for continuity of care. I think the same thing exists in Ocala near On Top of The World and south of Ocala at The Villages.

[kyle19125]

Originally Posted by xofruitcake

I read most if not all the threads in this forum regarding health care in Orlando and it seems like most folks here are happy with Florida hospital and Orlando health in Orlando. Do you have a different opinion regarding health care in Orlando? Right now my wife and I are in our very late 50s and reasonably healthy. But I can see down the line that we may need to hire part time helps, move into assistant care facility and eventually continuous care facility when we get much older. Right now we live in Greater San Francisco area and domestic help are very hard to come by and quality is questionsble at best. Orlando seems to be a good location to grow old in but understanding the quality of the assistant and continuous care quality and cost in the area is one of our top priority and hence the question and hoping that someone can share their experience. Can you share your experience of helping your parent?

Orlando is not a good area to grow old in as the extensive sprawl, woefully insufficient transportation infrastructure and rapid influx of population is creating an environment I don't think many would find an attractive option in the retirement years. Is there a reason behind the fixation on Orlando specifically? Often we see many who think Orlando is a good option because they visited once on vacation and found the area around the theme parks appealing, however it's a microcosm of the overall picture here and certainly not reflective of life in general. In terms of elder care staffing it's often the case of being questionable given the wretched pay structure for those charged with such a difficult task (often as little as fast food workers) along with the long term care facilities which have limited skilled nursing staffing (LPNs versus RNs) and primary coverage by nursing assistants. All while paying what amounts to a small fortune for such "services". If I had it to do over I would have gone the route of home health care where I had control over the staffing utilizing skilled nurses, versus what amounts to underpaid caretakers with little or no motivation.

[xofruitcake]

Kmarc, thank for your pointer. I will look to see if I can find those continuity community that you pointed out.

Kyle, We are still in our late 50s and very independent for now. both my wife and I are city type of person and Orland certainly seem to fit what we want for now. However, my wife has a stroke 6 or so years ago because her blood vessle is too thin in her brain. So we want to be prepared just in case. Nursing home is one of the option that we look into if there are good facility and we can go with the private home care route if necessary. In bay area, neither option is really feasible as we have full employment+ situation. Quite a few of our older friends and relative has tried to hire home helpers and got really low quality worker. Our minimum wage is $11 an hour California and $14 an hour SF and Oakland.. So the nursing home facility cost move with the minimum wage as well. And because of the booming economy here, it is not just an issue of cost but an issue of availability even if cost is not a problem.. I take that you are very unhappy about the senior care situation in Orlando. Do you have anything specific that you can share?