Boomer — back to the home page

Just Ask Boomer

How do you use AI when you don't know what to use it for?

Part of the Appreciation Index

The Visit Checklist

What to look at, and what to ask, when you tour a senior care home.

Two of our nine dimensions, senior care and care technology, can only be scored by walking in. This is the list we built for those visits. Use it however you like.

Boomer’s take

One does not choose a home from a brochure. One goes, one sniffs, one asks awkward questions politely.

How to use it. Read it before you go in. Keep your phone in your pocket on the tour. Mark it within half an hour of leaving: saw it, did not, or could not tell. There is no score. Your “could not tell” marks are your questions for a second visit.

The short version

Go at a mealtime, and bring someone with you.

Look

  • It smells clean, not covered up.
  • Residents are up, dressed and doing something.
  • Staff talk to residents, not over them.
  • I would eat lunch here.

Ask about the night

  • If I fall in my room at 3 a.m., what happens, step by step?
  • Who is awake overnight, and how do they reach a nurse?
  • My family is far away. How would they hear, and how fast?
  • What happens if the power or internet goes out?

Ask about the days

  • Can I choose when I get up, eat and go to bed?
  • Can my family visit when it suits me?
  • Do I and my family help write my care plan?
  • If I need much more help later, can I stay?
  • Who can I complain to outside the home?

Check the equipment

  • I can reach the call button from the bed and from the bathroom floor.
  • Where is this home? Bells and paper, then wired buttons, then staff phones that buzz, then bed or room sensors, then one system for all of it, then families can see updates.
  • I saw the equipment in use, not just on display.
  • Are there cameras in bedrooms, and who watches them?

Ask about money

  • What is included, what costs extra, and how often has the price gone up?
  • Is there a deposit, and when do I get it back?
  • Can I take the contract home in a language I read?

Compared with America

  • I counted the nine basics on the card at the end. They are a legal floor, not a promise of good care.

Afterward

  • One line: what surprised me.
  • One line: what I still do not know.
  • One line: would I be content to wake up here?

The complete version

For a second visit, or for anyone who wants to go deeper. Tap a heading to open it.

1. Before you go
  • Is the home licensed or registered, and with whom?
  • Is there an inspection report, and may I read the latest one?
  • I asked for the price list in writing.
  • I picked a normal weekday, at a mealtime, and I am bringing someone.
2. The first five minutes

Use your nose, ears and eyes before the sales talk starts.

  • It smells clean, not covered up.
  • Residents are up, dressed and doing something.
  • Staff talk to residents, not over them.
  • I heard conversation or laughter, not only a television.
3. The 3 a.m. questions

Ask these about yourself. “If I lived here…”

  • If I fall in my room at 3 a.m., what happens, step by step?
  • How would anyone know I had fallen?
  • Who is in the building overnight, and who is awake?
  • How does the night staff reach a nurse or a doctor?
  • My family is far away. How would they hear, and how fast?
  • What happens if the power or the internet goes out?
  • Did they give a clear answer? A number beats “quickly”.
4. A normal day
  • Can I choose when I get up, eat and go to bed?
  • Can I go outside on my own? Is there shade and a seat?
  • What is there to do, and do residents help choose it?
  • What kind of person does this place suit best?
  • What are residents like after six months here?
5. Food
  • There is a choice at each meal.
  • They can cook for my diet, my faith and my tastes.
  • I can get a snack or a drink when I ask, day or night.
  • Staff help people who need help eating, without rushing them.
6. Visitors, and having a say
  • My family can visit when it suits me, including evenings.
  • A relative can stay overnight if I am unwell.
  • I was told plainly how to complain, and to whom.
  • There is someone outside the home I can complain to.
  • Residents or families meet as a group, and the home listens.
7. The people who work here
  • How many staff are on at night, for how many residents?
  • Is a nurse in the building at night, or on call?
  • What training do care staff get, and how often?
  • How long has the manager been in the job?
  • Someone on each shift speaks a language I speak.
8. Care, as needs change

Ask what they do. Do not ask them to judge your health.

  • Who writes my care plan, and how soon after I move in?
  • Do I and my family take part in it?
  • Can I keep my own doctor?
  • What happens when someone goes to hospital, and comes back?
  • How do they care for residents whose memory is failing?
  • If I need much more help later, can I stay here?
  • How do they care for someone at the end of life?
9. The room and the building
  • I can reach the call button from the bed and from the bathroom floor.
  • The bathroom has grab bars and no step to trip on.
  • Exits are marked, and I saw smoke detectors.
  • I can bring my own things, and one drawer locks.
  • Wi-Fi works in the room. I tested it.
10. The technology you can see

Technology should help the carers, not replace them. Pick the level that matches what you saw.

  • Level 0. Hand bells and paper charts.
  • Level 1. Wired call buttons to a nurse station.
  • Level 2. Wireless call buttons that alert staff phones.
  • Level 3. Sensors for bed, falls or movement, each on its own screen.
  • Level 4. One system for sensors, calls and records.
  • Level 5. Information reaches doctors and families too.
  • Staff carry a handset that sounds when a call button is pressed.
  • Staff record care on a screen at the bedside, not on paper later.
  • If there are bed or room sensors: who gets the alert at night, and what do they do?
  • A lifting hoist is charged and near a bed, not parked in a corner.
  • Are there cameras in bedrooms, and who watches them?
  • How do families get updates: a phone call, or a real system?
  • For any robot: when was it last used, and by whom?

Having the equipment is not the same as better care. What counts is whether staff use it.

11. Money and paperwork

Questions only. Take the answers to someone you trust before you sign.

  • What is included in the monthly price, and what costs extra?
  • How often has the price gone up, and by how much?
  • Is there a deposit? When do I get it back?
  • Is there a trial period?
  • Is my room kept, and what do I pay, if I am in hospital?
  • If I need more help in three years, what changes and what does it cost?
  • How much notice to leave, on either side?
  • Can I take the contract home in a language I read?
12. If you are coming from another country
  • Which hospital do they use, and how far is it?
  • Who do they call first in an emergency: my family, or someone local?
  • Have they looked after foreign residents before? May I speak with one?
  • Who helps with translation at a doctor’s visit?
13. Within 30 minutes of leaving
  • Record a one-minute voice note while it is fresh.
  • One line: what surprised me.
  • One line: what I still do not know.
  • One line: would I be content to wake up here?

The card · Compared with America

Nine things a certified US nursing home must have

Count how many you saw.

  1. A call button that reaches staff from the bed and from the toilet and bath.
  2. A licensed nurse on duty 24 hours, and a registered nurse at least 8 hours every day.
  3. Today’s staff numbers posted where you can read them.
  4. The latest inspection report, there to read.
  5. A first care plan within 48 hours of moving in, with the family taking part.
  6. Visitors at the time the resident chooses.
  7. A way to complain without being punished, and an independent person to complain to.
  8. No restraints, by straps or by medicine, for the staff’s convenience.
  9. A public rating you can look up.

These nine are a legal floor, not a promise of good care. Other countries have their own rules, so use the card to compare, not to judge what the law requires where you are.

Source: US federal nursing home rules, 42 CFR Part 483, read October 2026.

Good manners

  • No photos or recordings of residents or staff without their clear permission.
  • This is someone’s home. Knock, and ask before stepping into a room.

Know the limit

A tour shows you the best face of a place. Nobody tells a visitor what is broken. Talk to families of people who live there, and go back a second time at a different hour.

This checklist helps you look. It is not medical, legal or financial advice. The decision is yours and your family’s. We describe; we don’t diagnose, price, or recommend.

Leave a Reply