The facility is clean, there is no smell when you walk in which is a big plus for a skilled nursing facility, and the patients seem clean and taken care of. The furniture isn't the best, but at least the patients have small flat screen TV's in their room. However, apparently the AC doesn't work well in her room and a fan had to be brought in to keep them cooler. I would hate to be living there in the summer.
My grandmother entered their facility last Saturday, and by Tuesday, she was in bad condition and placed on hospice care. When I arrived on Thursday, to meet with the hospice nurse, my grandma was laboring in her breathing. She was on oxygen (and they have a oxygen concentrator that makes this loud humming noise to dispense the oxygen, I guess they do not have the updated equipment like they had at my dad's previous nursing home, which came from a panel on the wall) and the Hospice nurse said she needs morphine. She went to go find out about it and said that the nurse is going to bring it in. The Hospice Nurse steps out to make a phone call and then my grandma's nurse walks in and gives her the med and said rudely, "she got this two hours ago" and walked out. I was shocked by this attitude, my grandmother is dying and she is upset that I am bothering her. I asked the Hospice Nurse, is this place safe for my grandma, is she going to get good care here. She said the nurse was eating when she found her and she offered to get my grandma the medication even after the Hospice Nurse said she would do it. The Hospice Nurse said she left her break early to give the pain med so my Grandma could get it. I felt she did it because she wanted to look good in front of the Hospice Nurse, and not from the kindness of her heart.
The attitude nurse was on Thursday and Friday and she would come in and check on my grandma's roommate and never checked in on my grandma, even though she was her nurse too. She would walk by our room and look at us and then kept walking. On Friday, I stayed two to three hours at a time and we did not see anyone check in on her accept when the shift changed, and when the CNA came in on the swing shift to introduce herself and did a quick check on my grandma. My mom who was there all times of the day commented that the staff was not very attentive compared to the two skilled nursing facilities, my father stayed at in the past. When my grandma was getting closer to her time, we wanted to get her a dose of morphine to lessen her labored breathing and stuck our head out and didn't see anyone. This was about 7:30 p.m. We waited to see if we could find anyone but decided to ring the bell and that took about 10 minutes which wasn't so bad and thank goodness we got another nurse besides our attitude nurse, who quickly got my grandma the medicine and she gave us the bad news that her time would be coming. She was kind and the CNA who was helping was so sweet, and she even came to give my brother and I hugs before she left for the evening. Her and the LVN were the only bright spots of this facility.
I would never send anyone else I loved to this facility. We were not given a choice because the lousy social worker at St. Joseph said this was the only facility available for long term care. I would want a facility that was more attentive and considering my grandma's quick decline, I would hope that the staff would be checking in on her more to make sure she was comfortable. During her last night, I had left my brother and mom, to drop off my sister at home, and when I came back it was 9:30, after visiting hours. You were suppose to ring to be let in. I rang and waited for five minutes, no answer and no staff walking about. I texted my brother to open the door because there was no one around.
I gave two stars because I was touched by the two people who showed my family and I compassion during one of our toughest times. However, I felt that more attention should be given by the staff especially when the patient is very sick and near death to make sure that they are comfortable and not ignored because they will be dead soon. read more