Twin cities nursing home recommendations?

August 3, 2016 7:10 AM

My MIL has moderate dementia and is currently in a nursing home in Kansas City. We are considering moving her to the Twin Cities. Does anyone have a positive experience with a Twin Cities nursing home? Hopefully in the southern suburbs. She would be a Medicare only, elopement risk, patient.
posted by luge to Health & Fitness (6 answers total)

So I recently had to do some research into nursing homes, and US News has a pretty good rating system. Here's the one for the twin cities. You can filter by Medicare or Medicaid and you can narrow it by within a certain number of miles of a certain zip code, too. When I was looking I found out that the one on my street in my town was five star. Nice! It shouldn't be your only data point, but it can help narrow your choices down. You'll want to visit any facility before placing her, of course.
posted by clone boulevard at 7:35 AM on August 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

I'd recommend that you look for places that are licensed for Alzheimer's Care - these will have precautions in place for patients who may be an escape risk.

You can also look for a 'senior referral agency'. These are companies that can help you find the right place. One, for example, is A Place For Mom. They're a national company, and I don't know if they have local guides.

Here's a link to other senior referral agencies. These are most likely small companies who know a lot about the community, and want the best for your MIL. Talk to one or two of them, and find someone you like. Services will most likely be free to you (they will probably get a commission on placements, but that doesn't mean that they steer you to just one or two places).

I also just came across the Minnesota Aging line: 1-800-333-2433. The Board on Aging is your tax dollars at work, so you can also give them a call and ask them where to start, or if they have recommendations.
posted by hydra77 at 9:28 AM on August 3, 2016

Ebenezer Apartments in South Minneapolis treats their residents with a great deal of respect while ensuring their health and safety. I've been volunteering there for the last year developing technology-related programming, and the staff and residents have been wonderful. I mainly worked with Deaf and Hard of Hearing residents, but they are also dedicated to Memory Care.

MeMail me and I can try to connect you with some staff at the apartment complexes. I believe their websites only have contact info for the corporate office.
posted by Become A Silhouette at 10:44 AM on August 3, 2016 [2 favorites]

This database gives overall scores for different quality measures: Medicare Nursing Home Compare.
posted by Riverine at 11:30 AM on August 3, 2016

One general comment, prices are much cheaper outside the metro. If you're in Burnsville, for example, you may want to look at Northfield or similar.
posted by DaveP at 5:51 AM on August 4, 2016

My gramps and other elderly family friends lived at Cerenity Senior Care for a chunk of time and it seemed to go ok, all things considered.
posted by TheClonusHorror at 6:11 AM on August 4, 2016