On July 2nd of this year, my father, who had been diagnosed as having Alzheimer's disease (AD), was transferred from UCLA hospital in Santa Monica to the Pacific Post-Acute Nursing Home on 17th Street in Santa Monica, a facility that advertises itself as a "five-star, skilled nursing facility that provides personalized rehabilitation and nursing services in a comfortable environment." Naturally wishing to visit him in his new facility, I was informed that I would need to make an appointment to see my father; the first available to me was the 4th of July. When I sought out his room on the appointed day, I discovered that he was simply not there. Asking the staff about this anomaly, I was blithely told that he was certainly in his room. "No, he isn't," I insisted. Subsequently he was found to be visiting in another patient's room. The excuse of the staff to their not knowing his location was a simple one: "Sorry, we didn't know he could walk." I thought, "Five-star, personalized services?" and asked if they had bothered to read his medical file before taking him in as a patient, only to be met with silence. When I took him outside into the daylight I observed blistering all around his lips as well as under his chin. I asked the CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant) how this had ever come to pass, and was told: "I don't know. I think maybe he was shaved with a dirty razor." Of course this prompted my asking her if she didn't know who had shaved him, would she please find out for me, a query which was cut off by the response that in fact she had asked about this, but "Nobody knows who did it and you ask too many questions." When I challenged her by asking whether in fact she was telling me that somebody could have come in from the outside and shaved my father's face without anyone knowing his identity, she once again answered with a simple "I do not know." Later, sitting in the back yard with my father, it was very disturbing to hear patients crying out for help with no one bothering to attend to their needs. The next day, the 5th of July, I went back to the Pacific Post-Acute Nursing Home to check on my father and discovered him to be sleepy and unresponsive. I asked his CNA to provide me with a list of the medications that my father had been given since I saw him last. Her answer was to tell me that she simply didn't know and that I'd have to ask the doctor on duty. The supervising doctor did call me later and informed me that an error had been made, and that instead of having been given a 25mg dose of the prescribed medication, my father had been administered a 75mg dose instead. He apologized for the mix-up and told me he'd had it corrected ...
On the 6th I returned to visit my father, but when I entered his room I was shocked to find him lying half on the bed, half off, with his legs dangling over the side and entirely naked except for a wet diaper. He was very cold and was asking for help but garnering no response from the staff. I called out desperately for assistance and by the time the social worker, the RN, and the CNA all traipsed into the room they found me crying and trying to cover my father as best I could. Somewhat beside myself, I asked them if this was how they were accustomed to treating their patients, and was given the now familiar, "We don't know what happened." From my point of view, as a clinical PhD psychologist, I couldn't help but find their indifference problematic, and as my rage swelled, I told them that my father was a human being, and yet he was being treated like an animal. In fact, I conjectured, I supposed they treated their pets better than they did their patients; that said, I addressed myself to the social worker. I noted that it was her duty to report this institutional negligence to a higher authority, while admonishing her not to be adversely influenced by the nursing home administration. I reminded her that she had taken an oath of service, and that accordingly she was duty-bound to protect my father against the careless negligence he was obviously enduring. She advised me that she had taken note of everything, and that she would faithfully report the facts of her findings. However, my surmise is that she did not do so or perhaps the administration fired her before she could act--but in any case I believe a wrong has been done.
I decided, given all that had happened, that my father's health and welfare were not being served at the Pacific Post-Acute Nursing Home and so, despite all the difficulties this would entail for me, the only responsible course was to take him home with me at once. read more