The care at Harbourwood Care is ATROCIOUS! The duty of fulfilling their responsibilities for 24…read morehour supervised medical care, administering medications, wound care, managing chronic conditions and ensuring a safe, comfortable living environment...they failed! The duty to provide hygiene care, bathing, dressing, eating, toileting and laundry...they failed!
My mother-in-law, Evelyn, passed away on 6/27/25 at Harbourwood Care Facility. She had balance issues which required assistance to stand. She constantly had UTI's from little to no hygiene assistance. She was often left unchanged from the night before till the afternoon. Doctor appointments were missed due to negligence arranging transportation. The food service department follows NO dietary protocols or considerations for medically necessary conditions. The doctor assigned was USELESS. When my wife called him for help, he was rude, uncaring, denied what we know to be facts, and refused to provide any additional orders or even suggestions to get Evelyn proper care.
My wife and I reside in another state and flew down several times a year to visit and check on things. We flew down that week after receiving a call stating that Evelyn was not doing good and was nearing the end.
Evelyn passed away without the assigned doctor ever seeing her, he signed the death certificate listing the cause as coronary. All without ever seeing her! We were there from morning til night so we know he didn't come in at all. My mother in law died from undiagnosed C-Dif. The week Evelyn died, she had diarrhea all week, with an odor so bad that the Nurse Practitioner diagnosed it immediately upon checking on her late Thursday afternoon on the 6/26/25. She ordered a sample be taken to the lab for verification immediately. She ordered antibiotics to be started immediately and ordered IV fluids to be started because she, without a doubt, knew it was C-Dif. She also told us that with proper treatment recovery was possible. Well the meds ordered were not started til much later, the IV fluids were never given and the sample ordered by the nurse Practitioner never made it to the lab. In fact, it was left on the night stand! Evelyn died the next morning.
Now the second part of this story. My sister-in-law, Donna, was also a resident at Harbourwood. She was bedridden with Multiple Sclerosis, Kidney Failure, Diabetes and a previous Heart Attack. She passed away at Harbourwood on 8/9/25 six weeks after my mother in law. The doctor from Mease Countryside Hospital informed me that although he tried to bring her back, too much time elapsed. Harbourwood waited too long to call 911. The reason for this delay was the standing order; that NO ONE can authorize any patient to be sent to the emergency room without approval from the Director of Nursing! Well, it just so happens that she was off for the weekend and it would need to wait till Monday 8/11/25. The on duty Nurses wanted to send her to the hospital on Friday, 8/8/25 and when she was unresponsive on Saturday 8/9/25. She died before 911 being called. To add further frustration, her cardiologist appointment on the Tuesday 8/7/25 prior to her death was canceled by Harbourwood because Harbourwood never made her transportation arrangements. So an appointment that possibly could have detected a problem and saved her life never happened because of both negligence and incompetence! The same exact thing happened, to my MIL, her cardiologist appointment was canceled for the same reason! Coincidence? Negligence? Incompetence?
The level of hygiene care is atrocious. My mother in law was never without a UTI infection. Her incontenince was a major problem with the staff. She was often left the entire day unchanged from the night before. Both my wife and I were frequent flyers in filing online complaints with ACHA, Agency for Health Care Administration. After an inspection visit things would improve for about a day or two. Then right back to the same old poor care. In fact, it was after one of their visits that my mother in law and sister in law were finally put together in the same room. A move we had been requesting for over a year.
The food service was a constant complaint to ACHA and Harbourwood administration. NOTHING CHANGED. A medically tailored diet for patients is a non existent thing! My MIL needed her food cut up small - the food service people refused to do it. Refused! My SIL was most often given foods she was not supposed to have or requested not to have. No one cared.
So all the care that you would want and expect from a nursing facility for your loved one, such as hygiene, nutrition, a safe caring environment and medical supervision you will not get at Harbourwood. Find another facility. If one good thing can come from two deaths in my family please let it be that you look elsewhere for your loved one.
