Do everything within your power to avoid placing a loved one in this facility.
Their website prominently features photos of their common areas, which are quite beautiful. Do you wonder why they don't have any photos of the rooms? Because they are dumps that haven't been remodeled since the 1970's. Fortunately, I've posted a few pics so you can get an idea.
How do you like that broken board with the protruding wood splinters next to the bed? And how about that method for calling for an aide? A call button accessible from anywhere? No! A knotted clothesline that your loved one is supposed to pull (and which can't be accessed if they are out of bed and in their wheelchair.) Pretty slick, huh?
Believe it or not the rooms are not equipped with telephones! When I expressed astonishment at this I was told "You can always get the person a cell phone." Yeah....modern technology in the hands of people in their eighties and nineties with poor eyesight and shaky hands....that's a real winning "solution." Being able to communicate with your family member is a hit or miss proposition and this is a huge issue.
Rooms are. dark and depressing as prison cells. Each has a single overhead fixture with a low wattage bulb in it. Over each bed is a fluorescent fixture with three tubes in it. These would be adequate I believe, if all three tubes were lit.
But the fixtures are fifty years old and ballasts for them aren't available. If two bulbs works consider yourselves lucky. Any responsible owner (and this facility is owned by a huge corporation,) would simply replace these outdated fixtures, but that would cost money, you see.
To their credit, management does permit use of your own table lamp (taking up some of the limited room on the dresser,) but that shouldn't be necessary.
Many of the beds have wall mounted TVs barely bigger than postage stamps. How an elderly person is supposed to be able to see the picture, is beyond me. Their maintenance man (a one-person"department,") said he's only permitted to install the larger TVs that some beds have once the old tiny one no longer works. Here again, you are permitted to bring in your own TV and set it on the dresser if there's room, but once again....that shouldn't be necessary.
And Aperion Care didn't purchase this facility just recently. They have had five full years to put things right!
It took me two weeks to get an elevated toilet seat installed in my family member's room. A task that should take two hours at most. She'd still be waiting, I believe, if I hadn't contacted corporate headquarters!
If you sign up for laundry service you're told that laundry will be picked up and returned three times per week. But you're lucky if it's once a week. Unless you're willing to do their laundry yourself your loved one will wind up without any clothes to wear in short order. Nearly half of my family member's clothes, as well as some bedding, disappeared for good.
I spent months trying to get Aperion Care to honor their own promises regarding laundry service. Even twice a week would be nice! Yet all I received were excuses and empty promise after empty promise.
Housekeeping is sorely lacking. Urine soaked bedding may very well not be changed until just before bedtime, and even that can be difficult to achieve.
As far as the staffing is concerned, all nursing homes are understaffed as part of their business model, and this one is no better or worse in that regard. Residents can easily wait an hour for an aide to come help them with toileting, which leads to accidents.
One Sunday I came by to visit my family member and there were no nurses on duty. I was told that much of the staff had staged a walk-out in protest of their pay and working conditions earlier in the day.
The food varies in quality, from inedible to quite good. To their credit the kitchen does seem to strive to use fresh vegetables, rather than canned, and the difference is noticeable.
Medical care leaves something to be desired. Although I have Power Of Attorney for healthcare for my loved one, and the Administrator, Director of Nursing, and Social Services Director all agreed that I should be notified of any proposed medication change before it happened, they did not honor this commitment once in four months.
The Director of Nursing seems genuinely committed to her job and made herself readily available to me, which I greatly appreciated.
As with other nursing homes I've experienced, there are a few truly wonderful nurses and aides working here, as well as people who have no business being there at all. Most fall somewhere in between. The Admissions Director is competent and caring and strives to assist, even regarding matters that fall well outside of his job duties.
Once, again, if you can avoid patronizing this place then by all means do so. read more