11 Western New York nursing homes rank among the best in the nation

Almost a dozen nursing homes in Western New York rank among the best in the nation. 

The U.S. News & World Report released their annual Best Nursing Homes list. Out of 15,000 homes nationwide, 11 nursing homes in Erie and Niagara County made it towards the top half of the list.

Some of the area nursing homes that earned top honors include the Elderwood at Lancaster, Mercy Hospital Skilled Facility, and St. Catherine Laboure Health Care Center. 

You can find a list of nursing homes in the Western New York area here. 

In order to come up with these rankings, the media company compiled data from each nursing home including nurse staffing, health inspections, and quality measures.

This year, 2,975 nursing homes earned the designation of U.S. News Best Nursing Home. 

Lisa Newman, Office of the State Long Term Care Ombudsman Region 15 Coordinator, adds there's three things everyone should when choosing a facility.

1. Research: Newman suggests going on the Medicare and Medicaid services website to look at ratings and compare.
2. Review: The facility's Department of Health Survey.  Newman suggest to look and see if there's any deficiencies and plans to correct anything that may have gone wrong.
3. Visit: Take a tour of the facility and ask questions.

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