A Mixed Review of Hillside: Good People, Broken Communication
My husband came to Hillside after a stroke. He's an Iraq veteran with PTSD, and the stroke made that much worse. I want to be fair here, because some of our experience was great and some of it was hard. Hillside has a lot of people who truly care. But the left hand and the right hand don't seem to talk to each other, and families pay for that.
It started with a missed connection. On admission day, a Thursday, I stayed for three hours waiting for the incoming nurse to do her rounds so I could fill her in. Eventually I gave up and started the hour-and-a-half drive home. As I pulled into my driveway, she called. When I told her that's exactly why I'd been waiting, she said she thought he could answer the questions himself. He'd just had a stroke. If family is in the building, that's the time to talk to them. Had she come by, I could have warned her what to expect. Instead, he had to fall first before he got the one-on-one supervision he needed.
Credit where it's due: my husband was not an easy patient. He was paranoid, volatile, and verbally abusive, and the nurses took it. Several of them rotated through, and I have real respect for the ones who held their ground. The nurses he connected with were wonderful. The ones who were scared of him, he knew it and used it. I don't blame them for that.
What I do fault is the one-on-one sitters who sat down and went straight to their phones. For someone with his kind of paranoia, that looks like being watched and talked about. Once he loses trust in you, you don't get it back.
Around the one-month mark, things slipped. He developed a blood clot on his right side. That's a common complication, but the swelling was visible. I was there almost every day, and I mentioned it on a Friday. I took one weekend off for my own sanity, and that's when it went sideways. He didn't go to the ER until I pushed for it. He was supposedly under constant observation during that period, so I have a hard time understanding how it was missed.
PT, OT, and Speech: absolutely outstanding. Rory, Cealan, and Betty, thank you. You were amazing, and you're the reason he left able to do things like climb stairs.
Discharge, and the part that hurt most. My husband insisted on going home, and he proved he could manage. It was technically AMA, but I gave notice on a Monday, and they had everything ready by Wednesday. I learned his medications and warning signs, and they scheduled his PCP follow-up. That part went smoothly.
Then on Friday I realized we didn't have enough of his antipsychotic to last until that appointment. That's the medication that keeps him stable. Yes, I should have counted. But I'd been promised 120 days of post-discharge support, so I called. I called ten times. About half the time someone picked up and hung up within seconds. The rest of the time it just rang. At one point I received a voicemail from another patient's family, left from their number. I spent that whole weekend walking on eggshells.
We're now going into week three at home, and I still haven't heard from their outpatient PT. I found a local clinic on my own, and he goes three times a week.
About the food: it varied. Some days good, some days not. With that many residents and tastes, nobody should expect gourmet. When he didn't want it, I brought him something else. Not a big deal.
Bottom line: When Hillside was invested, they were all in. We had real care-planning meetings about his specialized needs, and some staff went far beyond their job descriptions. But communication between shifts, between departments, and with families after discharge needs serious work.
Would I want my family member there again? No. Would I still recommend them? Probably, as long as you show up, ask questions, count your meds before you leave, and keep pushing. read more