First of all, for those who are reading & evaluating these types of reviews, please make sure that the review you are reading is based upon a real patient or family member's experience. Some of these reviews appear to be written as just public relation advertisements for the organization (who pay YELP extra to have their reviews posted first).
My review is based upon personal experience in this facility. I was there for 30 days after a fall that resulted in fractures of both legs. I was initially in casts on both legs and bedbound, and then gradually progressed to wheelchair. As a fairly short term, orthopedic rehab patient (and a retired nurse, with hospital, nursing home, home health, and outpatient physical therapy work experience), I had certain expectations (based, in part. on the Bothell Health Care website) for my rehab program. I was very disappointed. First of all, unlike hospitals, nursing home beds do not have side rails (in the nursing home environment, they are considered restraints and potentially dangerous, especially for cognitively impaired individuals). For an orthopedic patient, like myself, I needed side rails as a safety precaution - to keep me from falling off the bed, when I was turned on my side - and as a support. A special, physician-signed order is required for side rails. The doctor I saw on my first full day at Bothell Health Care, signed such a form; however, it took 14 days for small, head-of-bed side rails to be put on my bed (and during that time period I was having to hold onto either the side of my bed - which dipped down - or my bedside stand, which moved, when I turned to be put on a bedpan, etc....typically there was not enough staff to an aide to be on either side of me for these functions). Many of the days I was there, there were not enough Aide staff. One day, I used my call light so I could be assisted in using the bedpan, and after 40 minutes of no response, I ended up calling the front desk on my cell phone; even after that, it took another 12 minutes to have an Aide respond, and by then I had had an accident. I did have the expectation that the staff worked as a team, but other than the first patient conference (after nursing physical therapy, social service, etc had a chance to evaluate the patient), this was not the case. Nursing staff is hired by a different organization than the "therapy" (physical and occupational therapy) staff, etc., each rarely communicating with each other (except for nursing staff to tell the aides what to do. Other than the Activity Director's monthly calendar, that is no master computer schedule for everyone to be on the same page, related to each patient's treatment plan. It took me almost 2 weeks of persistently requesting having physical and/or occupational therapy the same time of day (so that I could plan to be dressed and get adequate pain medication in time to be able to do the therapy), for me to get that as part of my rehab program (otherwise, therapy would just knock on the door when they were available and see if you wanted therapy). I never felt included in my own care, and felt I had to expend energy I didn't really have, in fighting for a "say" in my own care. Individually, most of the staff were really caring, respectful and helpful - a lack of organization and responsiveness seemed to be more a matter of inadequate staffing and inadequate communication.
On the day before I was discharged an item I kept in my room closet since the day I was admitted - that I would need as an aide when I got home - was taken out of my closet. When I told nursing staff about it, they said, "sorry," but did not seem interested investigating the situation further. It took most of the afternoon and personal investigation to find out that one of the therapists had taken it, thinking it was the facility's - I can understand gong through rooms looking for items that may not be the patient's, but to go into a patient's closet without telling them, and taking an item is very disturbing! I did get that item returned to me, along with multiple apologies, but......this is certainly a concern.
At this point, it appears this facility's care focus is for long term care patient. And, it also appears that so much of what is done, is related to checking off the criteria for their governing guidelines (like Medicare, Medicaid, insurance, owners) and how the facility appears to the outside world, rather than the actual care to/for/with the patient.
I was told that they are having a new orthopedic wing built in the near future, and I would hope that once that is built, that the organization and staffing needs will be re-assessed as to how to provide a better rehab program for that segment of their population. 'Til then, I would not recommend this for other short term rehab patients. read more
