Questions to Ask When Touring a Nursing Home in Atlanta
Originally published: May 2026 | Reviewed by Sadie Mays
Originally published: May 2026 | Reviewed by Sadie Mays
Choosing a nursing home for a parent or spouse is one of the most consequential decisions a family will ever face. An in-person tour is the single most revealing step in that process — and the questions you ask during that tour determine the quality of information you take home.
An in-person tour is the single most diagnostic step a family can take when evaluating a skilled nursing facility. Research, CMS star ratings, and online reviews are useful starting points, but none of them can tell you what a building smells like at 10:00 AM on a Tuesday or whether a call light has been blinking unanswered for twenty minutes.
Walk through the front entrance and engage all of your senses before asking a single question. A well-run facility smells clean without heavy masking from disinfectants. Hallways should be orderly.
Residents in common areas should look engaged — or, at a minimum, comfortable and acknowledged — rather than parked in wheelchairs facing walls.
Active observation means watching staff-resident interactions in real time. Does a certified nursing assistant (CNA) knock before entering a room? Does a nurse walking the hall stop to speak to a resident who calls out, or keep moving?
According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, staffing levels and staff turnover rates are among the strongest predictors of overall care quality — and both show up in how a building feels during an unscripted walk-through.
Bring a notebook and write down what you observe before the formal Q&A begins.
Staffing gaps between a facility’s promises and its actual delivery show up most clearly when you ask specific, numerical questions rather than accepting general assurances.
Most facilities answer the day-shift ratio without hesitation. Push for the evening and overnight numbers, because those hours carry the thinnest administrative oversight and the highest resident vulnerability.
As of 2026, Georgia does not mandate a minimum nurse-to-resident ratio by statute, but CMS uses data from the Payroll-Based Journal (PBJ) system to calculate expected staffing thresholds and flags facilities that fall below them.
Ask for the ratio as a precise figure — “one CNA to how many residents on the night shift?” — and note whether the answer is specific or evasive. Evasion is itself an answer.
Temporary or “agency” staff fill scheduling gaps but arrive without knowledge of individual residents’ preferences, behaviors, or baseline health status. A resident with dementia who becomes agitated when approached from the left, or a resident whose oxygen levels trend lower in the morning, benefits enormously from staff who already know this.
Ask what percentage of shifts in the past 30 days were covered by agency personnel, and whether that number reflects a normal month or an unusual one. Facilities with high permanent staff retention perform better on both safety and resident satisfaction metrics, a relationship documented in the CMS Five-Star Quality Rating methodology.
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Under 42 CFR §483.35, Medicare- and Medicaid-certified skilled nursing facilities must have a Registered Nurse on-site for a minimum of eight consecutive hours per day, seven days per week, and a licensed nurse — RN or LPN — on duty around the clock. Ask specifically whether an RN is physically present during overnight and weekend shifts, not simply “on call.”
The distinction matters in an emergency. Sadie G. Mays Health & Rehabilitation Center maintains 24-hour licensed nursing coverage as part of its long-term care model — the baseline any certified facility should confirm without hesitation.
Medical care quality inside a nursing home is shaped by systems and protocols that most families never think to ask about. These three questions expose the structure behind the care.
Medication errors are among the most common and most preventable adverse events in long-term care settings. The Office of Inspector General has identified medication administration as a persistent risk area in skilled nursing facilities.
Ask whether the facility uses an electronic medication administration record (eMAR) system, how double-check protocols are structured for high-risk medications, and what happens when a dose is missed or a resident refuses. A well-organized pharmacy and nursing protocol produces a clear, specific answer to this question.
Post-hospital recovery timelines are directly affected by how quickly and consistently therapy begins. Facilities that rely on contracted therapy providers who visit only on weekdays create clinically significant gaps in recovery momentum. Ask whether rehabilitative services — physical, occupational, and speech therapy — are delivered by in-house staff or outside contractors, how many days per week each discipline is available, and whether weekend therapy is offered for residents in active recovery.
For families navigating post-hospital rehab in Atlanta, this single question can significantly narrow the field.
Under 42 CFR §483.30, physicians must visit residents within 30 days of admission and every 30 days thereafter for the first 90 days, then every 60 days — minimums that many strong facilities exceed.
Ask who serves as Medical Director, how often attending physicians make rounds, and what the protocol is when a nurse identifies a change in condition between scheduled visits. The answer reveals how quickly a facility moves from observation to clinical decision-making.
Safety in a skilled nursing facility encompasses fall prevention, emergency response infrastructure, and protocols for residents with cognitive decline. Each question below targets a documented risk category.
Falls are the leading cause of injury-related death among adults 65 and older, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Prevention in a long-term care setting requires both technology and protocol.
Ask specifically about bed and chair exit alarms, low-height beds, non-slip flooring in bathrooms, and individualized fall risk assessments.
Ask how frequently those assessments are updated — a resident’s fall risk changes as their condition evolves. Facilities with strong fall prevention strategies conduct reassessments after any incident, not just on a fixed schedule.
This question is deliberately specific because emergencies do not wait for business hours. Ask who is responsible for responding to a medical emergency in the middle of the night, whether the facility has a standing protocol for calling 911 versus managing on-site, and how quickly an on-call physician or nurse practitioner can be reached.
Ask what the average response time is for a call light during overnight hours. The specificity of the answer — not just “we have staff on duty” — tells you whether the protocol is real or performative.
For residents living with Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia, wandering is a serious safety risk that requires both environmental design and behavioral protocols.
Ask whether the facility uses wander-guard technology on exit doors, how door codes and keypad systems are structured, and whether memory care residents are housed in a dedicated secured unit or integrated into the general population.
Facilities with dedicated dementia care strategies typically use enclosed outdoor spaces and coded exits alongside behavioral protocols that address the root causes of wandering rather than simply reacting to incidents.
Quality of life inside a nursing home is determined by the texture of ordinary days. These questions move past clinical metrics into lived experience.
An activity calendar reveals how a facility thinks about engagement. A strong program includes physical activities, cognitive programming, creative arts, spiritual options, and social events — not just bingo three times a week.
Ask specifically what is offered for residents who are bedbound or who have limited mobility, because those residents carry the highest risk of social isolation.
The importance of social connections in senior care is well-documented; prolonged isolation accelerates cognitive decline and reduces overall health outcomes.
Dining flexibility and nutritional accuracy directly shape a resident’s recovery, energy, and comfort inside a nursing home. Ask whether residents have flexibility in meal timing or whether the schedule is entirely fixed, how the kitchen handles physician-ordered modified diets — low-sodium, pureed, thickened liquids — and whether a registered dietitian is on staff or contracted. Ask to see a sample weekly menu.
The role of nutrition in long-term care directly affects wound healing, medication efficacy, and energy levels; how a facility answers this question signals how seriously it takes that relationship.
Personalizing a room — bringing a favorite chair, family photographs, a familiar lamp — produces measurable effects on psychological comfort during the transition to long-term care.
Ask what the facility’s policy is on personal furniture, whether size or safety restrictions apply, and how roommate situations are handled when a resident in a shared room wants to personalize their half of the space.
The answer reflects how much the facility prioritizes individual identity alongside clinical care.
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Clear, consistent communication between a facility and a resident’s family is a structural feature of quality care — not an added bonus. These questions establish whether the infrastructure for that communication actually exists.
Under 42 CFR §483.21, skilled nursing facilities must conduct an interdisciplinary care plan meeting within 21 days of admission and after any significant change in condition.
Ask how those meetings are structured, who attends from the clinical team, whether family members can participate by phone or video, and how often routine reviews occur beyond the regulatory minimums.
Families who understand how care plans work in a skilled nursing facility are better equipped to advocate for their loved one’s goals at every stage of care.
Ask for a name and a direct phone number — not a general front desk line. In most skilled nursing facilities, the Social Worker or the Director of Nursing serves as the primary family liaison for non-emergency questions and formal grievances.
Ask what the facility’s grievance process looks like in writing, how quickly a concern is typically acknowledged, and whether a resident and family council meets independently of management.
A facility that welcomes structured feedback operates with the kind of accountability that predicts ongoing quality.
Under 42 CFR §483.10, facilities must notify a resident’s designated representative of any accident involving injury, a significant decline in health, or a change requiring a physician’s consultation.
Ask what “timely notification” means in practice — hours, not days — and whether that call comes from a nurse, a social worker, or whoever happens to be available.
Ask the same question about minor incidents: a fall with no injury, a refusal of meals, a change in behavior. How a facility handles minor notifications predicts how it handles major ones.
State and federal inspection data are public records. Knowing how to access it — and how to interpret what you find — gives families a significant informational advantage during the evaluation process.
Every Medicare- and Medicaid-certified nursing home in Georgia is inspected annually by the Georgia Department of Community Health, Healthcare Facility Regulation division.
The inspection report — called a Statement of Deficiencies — must be posted in a location accessible to residents and visitors.
Ask the administrator to show you the most recent report during your tour. Families can also access inspection histories independently through CMS Care Compare, which compiles survey results, staffing data, and quality measures for every certified facility in the country.
Families who know how to verify a long-term care facility’s license and inspection history in Georgia are far better equipped to interpret what they find.
A deficiency on a state inspection report is not automatically disqualifying — scope and severity matter. The Georgia Healthcare Facility Regulation survey process classifies deficiencies on a scale ranging from isolated, low-harm findings to widespread patterns that cause actual harm.
Ask the administrator to walk through any deficiencies from the last report and explain, in detail, what changed as a corrective measure.
A facility that responds with transparency — naming the deficiency, describing the corrective action, and explaining how compliance is being monitored — demonstrates the kind of accountability that predicts ongoing quality. A facility that responds defensively is telling you something equally important.
After completing the first tour, schedule a second visit to your top two choices — this time unannounced, and at a different time of day.
Arrive during a meal service or at a shift change, when staffing transitions are visible, and dining quality can be assessed firsthand. The contrast between a scheduled tour and an unannounced visit is often the most revealing comparison a family makes.
After both visits, review your notes alongside the CMS Care Compare data, the state inspection reports, and the nursing home quality indicators for Georgia that matter most for your loved one’s specific diagnosis and care needs.
Then trust your intuition. If a facility answered every question correctly on paper but something felt wrong during the walk-through — lingering odors, disengaged staff, residents calling out unanswered — that observation belongs in your decision.
Sadie G. Mays Health & Rehabilitation Center welcomes families to tour our Atlanta campus, review our inspection history, and ask every question on this list. Contact our admissions team to schedule a visit.
What is the most important question to ask when touring a nursing home?
The most important question when touring a nursing home is the staff-to-resident ratio on the overnight shift. Overnight staffing ratios reveal the facility’s true operational baseline, when administrative oversight is thinnest, and residents are most vulnerable to delayed response times.
How many times should you visit a nursing home before choosing it?
Families should visit a nursing home at least twice before making a final decision. The first visit should be a scheduled tour; the second should be unannounced, ideally during a meal service or shift change, when staffing and operations are visible without preparation.
Can you bring your own furniture to a nursing home in Georgia?
Most Georgia nursing homes allow residents to bring personal furniture and décor, subject to size and safety guidelines. Ask each facility about specific policies, including weight limits, rules for electrical items, and how personalization is handled in shared rooms with roommates.
What does a state inspection deficiency mean for a nursing home?
A state inspection deficiency means a nursing home failed to meet a specific federal or Georgia regulatory standard during an annual survey. Deficiencies range from isolated low-harm findings to widespread serious violations; families should ask about the scope, severity, and corrective actions taken.
Is a Registered Nurse required to be on-site at a Georgia nursing home at all times?
Under 42 CFR §483.35, certified skilled nursing facilities must have a licensed nurse on duty at all times. A Registered Nurse must be on-site for a minimum of eight consecutive hours per day, seven days a week; many quality facilities maintain 24-hour RN coverage.
What is a care plan meeting in a skilled nursing facility?
A care plan meeting in a skilled nursing facility is a formal interdisciplinary review in which nurses, therapists, social workers, and the attending physician discuss a resident’s health status, goals, and treatment plan with the resident’s family. Federal regulations under 42 CFR §483.21 require an initial meeting within 21 days of admission.
How do I find a nursing home’s inspection report in Georgia?
Georgia nursing home inspection reports are available through the CMS Care Compare tool at medicare.gov and through the Georgia Department of Community Health’s Healthcare Facility Regulation division. Facilities are also required to post the most recent Statement of Deficiencies on-site for public review.
What activities should a quality nursing home offer to bedbound residents?
A quality nursing home should offer bedbound residents individualized programming that includes cognitive stimulation, music therapy, one-on-one social visits, spiritual support, and passive range-of-motion activities. Engagement programs that reach every resident — not just those who can attend group activities — indicate a person-centered care model.