A thought on Nursing homes, Particularly Extendicare facilities

I have been working as a Certified Nursing Assistant for 11yrs and have had the great displeasure of working in several facilities owned and operated by Extendicare.  I am outraged and sick that our state is letting this company continue on in business.  I first started working for Extendicare at a facility called "The Gardens" located in Spokane WA, at one point during my two year employment at this facility I walked in for my daily shift and was informed that I had 50 residents that were my responsibility for the day.  On average an aid has 8-12 resident to take care of in an 8 hour period and you barely have time to get everything done for each resident.   Extendicare has just over 20 facilities in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, Only one of these facilities is above a one star rating and its located in Oregon. Their other facilities are constantly on state watch and receive fines and tags almost on a monthly basis. Here is a link to some reviews of the Extendicare corportation, http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Extendicare-Reviews-E6048.htm.  This is a link to the Medicare website where you can compare nursing homes in your area, if you look for extendicare facilities you will find that my earlier statement about the star rating is true. http://www.medicare.gov/NHCompare/Include/DataSection/Questions/SearchCriteriaNEW.asp?version=default&browser=Chrome|9|Windows+Vista&language=English&defaultstatus=0&pagelist=Home&CookiesEnabledStatus=True

This is a website that gives you a rating on the nursing home of your choice, http://www.memberofthefamily.net/registry/wa.htm
note that Extendicare Facilities are on the national watch list look for these names
Evergreen Nursing and Rehab Center
Franklin Hills Health and Rehab
Gardens on University
The stats on these nursing homes is the "Norm"
rating for most of Extendicares facilities.  Please consider this and choose wisely when placing your loved one in a care facility make sure you research all aspects of that facility.
This is a link to the national watch list for nursing homes, if the home you are considering in on this list you should reconsider your choices.
http://memberofthefamily.net/usmap.htm