July 31
I want to update this review to say that there are areas that Stella Maris does well. One of those is taking care of her medical needs. The Director of Nursing's office makes us feel very confident with handling her medical needs.
Our frustrations are NOT on that level. We do have an issue with the seemingly disconnect between the medical care and what we call the daily living care, like toileting, walking, and dietary.
At this time, we are going to keep Mommie at Stella Maris and work with the staff. Hopefully, the actual hands-on staff's day-to-day care will improve.
I have increased the star rating and hopefully will be able to increase it to another star as time goes on.
JULY 25
Things continue to get worse. Two days ago my sister found my mother soaking wet in urine. Her clothes, the cushion and pillow she was sitting and resting on were soaked with urine. There was even a puddle of urine in the geri-chair she sits in. This means that the aids are not toileting her at regular intervals, and they are not cleaning up the pillows, cushion, or chair when she urinates. We have consistently complained about the aids failing to take her to the bathroom when she calls. The staff, including the nurses, turn off her call light, tell her they will notify her aid, and no one comes back for an hour, oftentimes well over an hour. Mommie calls us frequently because she cannot get anyone to come take her to the bathroom. We believe the problem is two-fold. First, not enough aids. Second, poorly trained aids in terms of the ability to shift priorities. We are very aware that our mother is not the only incontinent resident. But the aids need to be trained on how to manage incontinent residents so they are not subjected to the humiliation of having to sit in urine soaked clothes. Our mother has had frequent urinary tract infections since coming the Stella Maris. While sitting in urine soaked diapers and clothing may not be the only cause of UTIs, that certainly does not help. We asked for a meeting with the Director of Nursing and the Director of the facility. So far, all we've had is a phone call from the floor nurse manager telling us she asked the aids what their process was. We asked her what else she was calling to tell us more than once, and she had nothing to add. First, she should have already known the aid's process. Second, we need to know what's going to be done to make sure this unsanitary, humiliating situation does not continue.
Taking care of people with serious health conditions is hard work, but if everyone started from a place of "This could be my mother or father" they would have to treat each resident with dignity, respect, and caring. Unfortunately, that is not the experience our mother is having at Stella Maris. read more
