With some personal details edited out, below is the text of a complaint I am filing tomorrow (May…read more17th, 2022) with the State of Massachusetts Department of Public Health:
My mother has been a patient at West Roxbury Health & Rehabilitation since this past December 23rd.
The main focuses of my mother's admittance into West Roxbury Health & Rehabilitation were intended to be physical therapy (building towards resuming her ability to walk) and continued mental health care (my mother is manic/bipolar and has been meeting with outside therapists for several years). The former has transitioned from lackluster previously to, for at least two months, nonexistent. The latter has been nonexistent or, to be blunt, neglected.
Over time, and has been expressed to me by various nurses and medical professionals employed by West Roxbury Health & Rehabilitation (and its parent company, Bear Mountain), my mother has developed bed sores on her buttocks. The physical therapy component of her care has been limited to some range-of-motion exercises focused on her arms.
On April 9th, in conversation with my mother, I learned she had not received any physical therapy since at least February. On the evening of April 14th, I detailed, in writing, the physical therapy I feel my mother needs to receive - sitting on the edge of her bed, followed by sitting in a chair, then a wheelchair, and then exercises focused towards walking. My handwritten request, as stated above, was ignored. In addition, via text exchanges and a phone conversation with my mother's outside mental health therapist, I learned that neither the Director of Social Services at West Roxbury Health & Rehabilitation, Regina Weston, nor any of her corresponding peers at West Roxbury, had never reached out to her, including a request for permission to access my mother's mental health records, in any form or fashion (I provided Regina with her contact information upon my mother's admittance, explaining the importance of contacting her, for my mom's mental health and wellness). Since April 15th, none of the voicemails - four in total - left for Regina have received a response; the same can be said for a handwritten note I left in Regina's inbox on the evening of May 4th (the note was received and removed from her inbox the following day. In sum, a staggering lack of professional competence on Regina's behalf).
My mother, quite often, has reported medical issues and not received treatment. These issues include a cold (she was not provided any medicine by the facility; I brought her a bag of Halls' Cough Drops) and abdominal aches which went untreated.
She has approximately eight or nine changes of clothes I brought her from home. There have been repeated incidents of the morning nurse on duty of refusing to switch my mother from a johnnie to a change of clothes. No explanations have ever been provided by the nursing staff for these refusals.
As well, there have been ongoing infestations of cockroaches and spiders within the facility. I overheard talk in mid-March from one of the nursing-level staff members of an exterminator being contracted to eliminate the infestations. Apparently the attempts were lackluster, or have not been followed up upon.
The patients' bathroom my mother utilizes has not had a properly functioning paper towel dispenser nor a properly functioning soap dispenser since at least her date of admission last December. Less than half the time (I visit my mom at least six days per week) is there a replacement supply of soap; more often than not, there is no soap at all. The bathroom in question often features lingering odors of urine and/or feces. The staff bathroom, located within a common hallway, is properly maintained, as I have utilized it on occasion when the restroom adjoining my mother's room is occupied, with a properly functioning and more modern paper towel dispenser, as well as a properly functioning soap dispenser - both fully stocked or supplied.
(I hope your Department performs unannounced inspections, because this place needs one. Badly.)
Following a comprehensive medical examination at ideally either Faulkner Hospital or Massachusetts General Hospital, my mother needs to be transferred to a facility where her physical and mental health therapy needs will be fulfilled. West Roxbury Health & Rehabilitation has made it clear they are not capable of serving as the facility in question, and they do not deserve an opportunity to prove me wrong. I am filing this complaint with the hope that you can assist in reaching out to the facility's management in a manner which will be responded to. (I have no reason to bear any faith any attempts by me, based upon their established track record, would generate such a reply from said facility management.) They seem content to allow their patients to reside at their facility without adequate care until they're ready to die, even when they have - as my mother does - a home to return to.
