Very very bad experience. I was admitted because I had broken my femur, had surgery and needed nursing care. The day after my arrival I called for help to go to the bathroom. The tech that came to assist me failed to support my left leg while helping me get out of bed which resulted in my leg falling off the bed and causing horrific pain for days. I was in so much pain that I could not get physical therapy which set me back 5 days. The sad thing about it was that several of the tech's were aware of his poor job performance this was not the first time he had mistreated patients there. The facility never put what had happened in my records. They only stated that I had extreme pain therefore I had to get X-rays.
Three days before I was released I had physical therapy and the therapist asked me what concerns do I have when I arrive at home. I told him my front door has a 2 or 3 inch threshold and I'm worried about getting in with the walker. The therapist brought over a constructed steps with railing and told me to hop on the first step. I was scared that I couldn't hop onto the step with one leg. He said, "Don't worry you won't fall, I'll hold you with the gait belt" I did hop up the first then the second then the 3rd and finally the 4th step with him holding onto to me with the gait belt and all this time I was supporting myself with the hand rails and needless to say my bad leg was just hanging there. He had me hop down the 4 steps and again he had me hop up and down. 8 times up and 8 times down. A little bit of over kill, don't you think? All of this so I could get into my house with a 2 inch threshold. This therapist just happens to be the head of physical therapy. And then that evening my left shoulder began to hurt and hurt a lot! I called the tech and told him what had happened to me during therapy and to note it in my file, and he told me he would do that. Shortly afterwards he came back with a small container of aspercream and I rubbed it into my arm and shoulder. This took place 17 days ago and I am still in very much pain and waiting on x-ray results.
The food was horrible, my room mate was lactose intolerant and they kept bringing her food with lactose as a matter a fact they would add extra cheese on some of her meals. They had said that we could always get the alternate meals, but they never gave us that choice.
The toilet had urine dried outside the bowl for at least 5 days and when I brought to their attention, the custodian couldn't see what I was talking about. I witnessed a tech clean feces on the hand rail in the bathroom after I brought it to her attention with a disposable cleaning towel instead of using a desinfected towel.
One morning my roommate and I got yelled at in front of all the patients in the dining room for arriving at 8:00 am instead of 7:30 am for breakfast.. No one had told us that we had to be on time for breakfast or they would not serve us. She yelled, "You are late, you can't eat in here you have to go back to your rooms, we are not serving you!" This was very embarrassing and humiliating. Oh she tried to make it better by pulling me back into the dining room on my wheelchair and seated us and allowed us to order breakfast. My room mate and I were very upset and had no plans on returning any time soon. Well, about 6 days later we decided to give them the benefit of the doubt. We arrived for breakfast at 7:30 am sharp and unfortunately, we did not get served till 8:00 am and our food was served after 8:00 am. All of the fuss over being on time was for nothing, it didn't matter because they were still serving after 8:00 am. The cafeteria manager just wanted to show to everyone that she was the boss.
Most of the technicians were very helpful and had empathy for us, but their were a few that had no business working there. My room mate and I were very aware of the technicians that did not like doing their jobs. Maybe it would be in the nursing homes best interest to continuously evaluate their employees because this type of work is obviously not for everyone!
I am emotionally disturbed and very frightened of experiencing more pain because of how the technician failed to support my leg and also how the physical therapist put me through a very strenuous exercise that was totally uncalled for. I bet he wouldn't put his mother thru an exercise like that! Thank God I was only there for 14 days.
I suggest if you have a loved one in a nursing home plan on being there almost 24/7. Because you have no idea what goes on while they are alone.