Columbia Basin Care Facility
The Dalles, Oregon

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Columbia Basin Care Facility

Columbia Basin Care facility is a residential nursing facility, what people used to call 'nursing homes', located in The Dalles, Oregon. The staff and residents at Columbia Basin Care Facility are making real changes to alter the quality and image of "nursing home care".  We work with residents to give them a wider range of choices in their daily activities and rountines.

Columbia Basin Care Facility also provides rehabilitation services and respite care that are according to each persons needs. The facility is community owned by Wasco County and is managed by Aidan Health Services. The Dalles, Oregon is on the banks of the Columbia River, east of Portland with breathtaking views of the Columbia Gorge and Cascade Mountains.

We invite you to see our facilities, meet our staff and use this site as a resource to learn more about how to make an informed choice about your long term residential care options. It is important that your choice of nursing care facility and rehabilitation services be based on your confidence in the quality of care we provide.

You will find that we are recommending the well developed nursing home checklist developed by AARP, articles about how to Choose a Nursing Home and links to information about medical conditions from WebMD and other well recognized organizations. Understanding Medicaid and Medicare is a major task for families selecting the right care options for their loved ones. Go to the Family and Residents Resources page to find information and links providing assistance

Columbia Basin Care Facility Amenities

Columbia Basin Care Facility Rehabilitation Services

Our professional therapy department consists of well trained and experienced physical and occupational therapists as well as speech language pathologists. Our belief is that a team approach between the physician, nursing and therapy departments creates an excellent and unsurpassable rehabilitation program. This enables the patient to optimize their overall abilities for a safe and successful transition home.

Columbia Basin Care Facility Respite care

Our respite care services cater to family members or other caregivers who need a break, vacation or have a temporary out of town situation. We can provide that temporary care for 2 or more days at a time. For more information or to schedule a Respite stay, please give us a call.

Real changes to "nursing home care" and what that's all about

So what does that mean for staff and residents? The residents are making choices for themselves as much as possible. After all, making choices is what the residents have done for themselves prior to coming to stay at Columbia Basin Care Facility, so why not continue?

We believe that Residents should have real choices:

• what do I want to eat?
• when do I want to get up?
• when do I want to bathe or shower?

Together the staff and residents have developed these specific approaches that give the residents real choices.

Meals

There is a menu for each meal that Residents can use to select what they want to eat. Residents have input in the creation of the menu and special diets are liberalized to the degree the Resident requests. Many residents are involved in helping with the dining room set-up and service. Snacks are available 24 hours a day and a continental breakfast is available all morning.

Bathing

Residents tell staff when and what type of bathing they want to have and we orient the nursing assistants to the concept of Bathing without Battles.

Activities

Residents not only direct the type of activities they want, many residents are self directing activities without staff present.

Sleeping

The staff won't wake residents up at night to 'check' for incontinence or to take vital signs. We work with the residents to give them choice of when they want to get up in the morning rather than waking everyone up and bathing and dressing before breakfast.

These changes are just the beginning of our goal to make skilled nursing care facilities responsive to the needs and desires of residents rather than following the schedules and routines that may have been common in nursing homes of the past.

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