Mom has dementia, we had to make the hard decision, home care was not enough. We went with what was Hamiliton Continuing Care, now Avalon. HUGE Mistake!
Theft - beyond belief! Clothes, toiletries, even her bible! Massive Emails and visits trying to work with them, as they were very apologetic. They offered to reimburse, so that lets you know, this is something they deal with. I had to replenish her wardrobe, 4x. I had labeled and marked her clothes like a graffiti artist. Just gone.
Ants, and bugs infested her room (see photos). Again, massive emails, visits and apologies. No surprises by them, just moved her 3x until we hit one that was fine.
HOWEVER, the HUGE life / death situation. Mom is diabetic. She scratched her leg, creating a small scar. I am in NC but would visit 2x mos. I knew all the staff and they knew me. Wound care was supposedly happening. 'she needs to keep her foot elevated'. They kept saying to which I said ' She has DEMENTIA! Make sure she does that! Of course she will say she is. I demanded meetings (that no one wanted to have) Enough, I made an appointment with her external PCP, as it had gotten horrible. THAT doctor sent my mother to the hospital immediately! That scratch had infected to a necrotic wound, with dried gangrene, to sepsis vein damage resulting in the need for emergency amputation. That same morning before I knew this was going on, I got a call from Avalon saying the PT was working, and if I could get another week of PT approved by the insurance company, the leg would be well. Avalon had no idea the external PCP was sending my mother for emergency surgery at that moment; they didn't even know she had gone to an external doctor visit. These events are happening concurrently the very same day. The healthy, just a scratch leg, that was supposedly being taken care of by the Avalon wound specialist, had to be amputated. Had I not had her sent to the external PCP, that leg was on the verge of sepsis poisoning and my mother would have died in a few days.
On many other occasions, my mother had emergency admissions 3 x, I was not contacted. Once I learned from the hospital calling to verify if my mother had an advance directive, on the 3rd day of an 11 day pulmonary stay; no one from Avalo contacted me nor my brother who is 15 minutes away. In that situation, I didn't let them know I had been contacted by the hospital, just to see when they could finally contact me. They never did. I had to tell them what was going on with as to why my mother was not in her room. The DON lied that she spoke to me, literally RAN down the hall when ID'd as the one who was supposed to call me - Keystone Cop ran. She LIED and scribbled a notation on Mom's chart THAT day that I demanded how come I wasn't called. She falsely scribbled the name of another nurse; not quite the 'who and when' that should have been recorded. Another time before bringing her for her holiday visit with me, I arrived to take her to lunch, only to be told she was in the hospital, lied to again, that they tried to reach me and my brother, (neither of us ever had a missed call on our phones) facility records not matching any of this. That time they, couldn't even tell me which hospital she had been taken to. Meanwhile, multiple invoices were sent to my mother's Medicare, Medicaid, etc. No response - ever.
So many other issues (300+ emails, countless visits, etc., photos that did not post) I sent a certified letter to the ED to get her medical records, never heard from them, no records, no response. Why did I keep her there for so long? Despite this mess, Mom liked her caregivers. Even the ones we highly suspected were robbing her. SHE felt good. She is at another facility; she only has one leg left, and we wanted her to keep that one. read more
