How to Ask About a Nursing Home Opening: A Family Phone Script

You have a list of nursing homes and a phone in your hand. The first question seems obvious: “Do you have a bed?”

That is a useful start, but it is not the whole conversation. Your goal is to find out whether the home can consider the care your parent needs, what information its team must review, and who will tell you when admission is actually confirmed.

Use the questions below as a conversation guide. They are not a clinical assessment, an admission guarantee, or a substitute for the facility’s written terms.

Begin with the kind of stay you are looking for

Try this opening:

“Hello, I’m helping my parent look for nursing care. We are looking for [short-term rehabilitation / a longer-term nursing-home placement]. My parent is currently [at home / in the hospital / in another care setting]. Who should I speak with about whether your facility can consider their needs?”

You do not need to tell a receptionist your parent’s entire medical history. First confirm that you have reached the correct facility and admissions contact. Ask which details are useful for an initial discussion and which should go directly from a clinician through the facility’s confirmed intake channel.

For a hospital discharge, involve the hospital’s social worker or discharge-planning team early. Medicare identifies that team as a resource for locating an appropriate nursing home and arranging a transfer. ¹

Separate four questions that can otherwise get mixed together

For your notes, use four headings:

This is an organizing tool for your calls—not a universal four-step process every nursing home follows. Ask each admissions team how its process works.

A helpful follow-up is:

“When you say a bed is available, does that mean you are ready to review a referral, or has my parent’s admission already been approved?”

Write down the answer rather than interpreting reassuring language as a final decision.

Describe help your parent needs, not just diagnoses

Be specific about the assistance you have been told is needed. For example:

“The hospital team says my parent currently needs assistance with [the relevant daily tasks]. There are also orders for [the treatment or equipment]. What records would your clinical team need to decide whether you can provide that support?”

Use the treating team’s description for clinical needs. Do not guess about transfer techniques, treatment intensity, or whether a person can safely manage alone.

Medicare’s admission guidance identifies current health information, daily-function difficulties, medications, allergies, provider contacts, and advance directives among the information families should have available. ² The point of your call is to learn how the appropriate information should reach the reviewer—not to perform that review yourself.

For the broader document list, see NHP’s nursing-home admission checklist.

Ask about the exact insurance arrangement

Avoid stopping at “Do you take Medicare?” Instead, try:

“My parent has [the exact plan name]. Who can check the coverage arrangement for this proposed stay, and what does the plan itself still need to confirm?”

Then ask who will explain any expected out-of-pocket charges and whether the answer is an estimate or an actual coverage determination.

Medicare Part A skilled-nursing coverage depends on eligibility conditions and is limited in duration. A Medicare Advantage plan can have different cost sharing. Neither the existence of a bed nor a facility’s participation, by itself, establishes coverage for a particular person and stay. ³

Do not decide that your parent must qualify—or cannot qualify—from a brief telephone exchange. Ask the treating team, admissions office, and insurer to clarify their respective parts of the decision.

Before sending records, identify the next action

Try to end the first call with an action rather than “We’ll be in touch.”

“What is the next thing you need, who should send it, and what is the best way for us to confirm you received it?”

Ask for the person’s name and role, a direct callback route, the correct intake destination, and the information needed to match the referral to your parent. Confirm the destination with the facility or referring team before sending sensitive documents.

You can keep the call note simple:

Facility and address: ______
Contact and role: ______
Date of conversation: ______
What is being considered: ______
Information still needed: ______
Person responsible for the next action: ______
Agreed follow-up: ______

Keep policy numbers and medical records out of a broadly shared family spreadsheet. Ask your parent, or the appropriately authorized representative, how information should be shared.

An opening should not replace a quality comparison

Once a facility appears to be a possible fit, continue the comparison. Medicare recommends reviewing inspection results, staffing information, and quality measures, and visiting the homes being considered. ¹

Ask to see the actual unit or type of room being discussed when feasible. A tour of a different area may leave your most important questions unanswered.

Useful questions include: “Who would help with the tasks we described?” “What is still uncertain?” and “Can you put the important service and payment details in writing?”

NHP’s nursing-home search guide can help you organize the broader shortlist; this phone script is intended to make the initial contacts more useful.

When there is no suitable opening

Ask whether the facility accepts future inquiries or maintains a waiting list for the kind of stay being discussed. Clarify how to follow up and what a place on that list actually means.

At the same time, keep a realistic alternative plan. Ask the hospital or current care team what safe arrangements can be considered while you continue the search. Do not assume that waiting for a preferred home automatically extends insurance coverage for the present setting.

For help identifying local support services, the Administration for Community Living’s Eldercare Locator connects families to aging resources, including home support, transportation, and respite resources. It can be reached at 800-677-1116. ⁴ It is a public resource, separate from Nursing Home Placement.

End the first call with a clear next step

Before hanging up, summarize the conversation:

“You can consider a referral for [the kind of stay]. The next step is [the action], and [the person or team] will handle it. We should follow up through [the agreed contact]. Is that an accurate summary?”

Correct any misunderstanding while the contact is still on the line. An initial inquiry can be useful even when it does not produce an immediate opening. It should leave you knowing whether to arrange a clinical referral, ask about a waiting list, or continue looking elsewhere.

Sources and scope