Sounds like you have the right approach msbluis. Hubbie has done karaoke in a place that is small and family operated and they truly treat all the residents like family. But my MIL was in a regular nursing home. It wasn't owned by a big conglomerate. Sometimes I think you have to watch out for them. yes, do got ot he sites where you can check citations, accreditations, reviews, family reviews, maybe even word of mouth. Go to them and notice the smell, what the residents are doing. Are there any activities like outings, cookouts, rehab and physical therapy, volunteers. My MIL was in one who did rehab to home and they had a kitchen where they helped people get around a kitchen and relearn how to cook. So they used this kitchen a lot of times for the residents to gather and with the help of the activities director regularly baked things. Look at their menu, hopefully they have one. Talk to patients and or family members. What is their ratio of nurses to patients? How many RNs and LPNs. What kind of pharmacy provisions, do they have to wait the next day for new medicines to start. In house physicians. A whole host of questions, most learned form my MIL being in a nursing home for about 10 years before dying. Oh, is there a hospice that treats patients there if needed. MILs did and they came on board the last two days and it sure made it easier on all of us knowing we had that advocate