This review is for the Goldenberg-Ziman Special Care Center that is on the campus of Eisenberg Village in Reseda. My parents were living in an apartment in the independent living facility for 10 years when my father finally had to be moved to the Goldenberg-Ziman Special Care Center due to his dementia progressing to a point that required more attentive care.
From the beginning, my mother, who is a retired nurse, realized that the care that was being provided the residents there was extremely lacking, even bordering on neglect, with mistakes being made frequently, such as with his medications. For example, my father is very unstable on his feet, so at night he urinates into plastic bottles so he doesn't have to walk to the bathroom. When my mom would show up mid-morning to visit him, she could see that the urinals still had not been emptied. She would complain to the staff, but nothing changed, and she eventually just started showing up earlier in the morning and taking care of it herself. Another example was that the "showers" that my dad received were basically someone splashing him down with water for a few minutes, then toweling him off. These are just a few examples of the lack of attentiveness and incompetence on the part of the staff.
Eventually, my mom began showing up earlier and staying later in order to take care of my dad's needs, even going to all of his meals with him because of the constant errors that were being made with his dietary protocol. As my mother's presence there became a fixture, and after numerous instruction and reminders given to the staff, the care eventually started to improve. However, not so for the other residents, the majority of which didn't have family with a medical background who could advocate for them there and constantly keep tabs on things.
Approximately two months into my dad's stay, my mom fell and broke her hip and ended up in the hospital, leaving my dad on his own for the first time since he enter the facility. Though my sister and I tried to visit as much as possible in order to try to take over for my mom, it was impossible for us. And just as we feared, his care completely eroded: he ended up falling and was sent to the ER; his diaper would hardly ever be changed and he would be sitting in a wet diaper often; my mom used to do his laundry, and even though we explained to them that this was no longer going to be the case since she was injured, we could never get them to start doing his laundry despite repeated attempts (ironically, some of his clothes started disappearing and when we complained, it was discovered they were mistakenly taken to the laundry). Eventually, my sister just resigned herself to doing his laundry herself. And these are just some of the examples.
We started complaining about this to some of the people in charge. For example, I spoke to the supervising nurse, Louisa. She was completely unsympathetic and even responded in a somewhat hostile and passive aggressive way. At one point, she suggested that this facility may not be the right fit for us and that we may want to explore other options. This was an insult, as my parents made a huge effort to move into Fountain View 10 years ago with the expectation that when this time came, they would be well taken care of. Being that I wasn't getting anywhere with Louisa, I asked for a meeting with her superiors. And while the meeting went fairly well, and everyone seemed understanding and sympathetic to our complaints, nothing really changed. They, however mysteriously, were able to produce his missing clothes at the meeting.
All that said, we are tremendously disappointed in the quality of care at the Goldenberg-Ziman Special Care Center that is on the campus of Eisenberg Village in Reseda. read more
