Review of Bride Brook Health & Rehabilitation Center

Please make Bridebrook your LAST RESORT!

My Grandmother had a lengthy stay at Bridebrook last year. This is the second time attending this rehab facility for her. The first time, which was many years prior, she had a so-so experience (not good, but not awful). During her second stay, her experience was horrific. I'm going to go into some detail, and will list the ridiculous happenings within this facility. Keep in mind that my Grandmother is a very petite, kind and soft-spoken woman. She is in no way difficult and rarely speaks her mind. She's very 'go with the flow'. In no way should a patient's attitude affect the type of care that they receive, but she has always been an easy patient (at home or away). Please take into consideration the issues that I have listed below, before you or your loved one attend this rehab facility:

1. My Grandmother was on a strict 'gluten-free' diet (orders give by her doctor). Was this simple instruction followed? Not at all. For over three months, my Grandmother was served the incorrect diet every single day. I wish this was a stretch of the truth. My family (and I) was able to visit her daily, and witnessed the meals she was served. We eventually had to resort to making food at home for her, and taking it to Bridebrook to her directly. If we left this food in the Bridebrook fridge, it was eaten by the nurses, despite the fact we had our Grandmother's name and room number in large writing on the containers. We had multiple meetings with the nursing staff as well as the head nurse to discuss this major concern - they reassured us that her gluten free diet would be followed, but unfortunately nothing changed.

2. My Grandmother was on many different medications, and had to take one of these medications in the middle of the night. One of the night nurses didn't appreciate the fact that it took my Grandmother a minute or so to wake up and become coherent enough to sit up and swallow pills. So, my Grandmother was regularly screamed at and handled very roughly in the middle of the night when this nurse was on duty. Careful - if you don't wake up quickly enough at 2:00 am, the nurses may shove you upright and yell at you. Keep in mind, my Grandmother was getting over a very severe bone break, and has incredibly brittle bones, so being yelled at and handled roughly didn't do much for her health. After a month of this, my Grandmother finally spoke up to the family - we complained to the head nurse and nothing changed.

3. My Grandmother was supposed to attend regular physical and occupational therapy throughout the week. After she was brought into the therapy rooms, she was regularly forgotten about, and would sit in the room alone until someone remembered her. Did she then have her therapy session? No, she would be wheeled back to her room.

4. As I said earlier, my Grandmother took various medications throughout the day. Some of these pills were especially large, and she was having a tough time swallowing them. She asked if there were smaller pills of those particular medications that she could take? Rather than looking into this question, the nurses decided to start crushing her pills and mixing these pills in with food. Yes, they informed her that they were doing this, but they failed to research or inquire with a head nurse or a doctor if these pills COULD be crushed. She was beginning to get mysterious stomach pains, to the point where she was doubled over in her wheel chair in pain, couldn't sleep at night and lost her appetite. After this went on for a while, my family spoke up and asked the nurses why this was all of a sudden happening… They brushed us off and kept telling us that they would look into these 'mysterious pains'. They never did. We then did our own research, and thought perhaps the pills that they were now crushing should not be crushed…? It turned out we were correct, and these pills were supposed to be time released, rather than released immediately into her system. After explaining this to the nursing staff, they stopped crushing the pills, began giving her smaller pills of that same medication, and her mysterious stomach pain then went away.

5. While having these awful stomach pains, the nursing staff though that perhaps my Grandmother was constipated… So, rather than asking questions or referring my Grandmother's pain issues to a doctor, they made the decision to give her laxatives. They overlooked the fact that she had lost her appetite and had been having diarrhea regularly - and, most importantly, had overlooked the major fact that the way her medication was administered had changed. In conclusion, because of their ignorance and laziness, my Grandmother lost a great deal of weight and became very sick. This facility continued to add on further issues to the one issue she initially went there to repair - a broken bone.

6. My Grandmother also became sick with a severe cold while she was at Bridebrook. I'm sure this happens in any facility, but after we requested that she have an inhaler to help with her breathing, it took OVER A WEEK to get it. We explained that her doctor regularly puts her on an inhaler when she gets a cold, due to her weak lungs. After my Grandmother complained after seven days of not receiving the inhaler (after they told us we would have it the following day of requesting it), we called her doctor, and found that Bridebrook had never called to order the inhaler. We called it in for my Grandmother and she finally got it.

On an unrelated note, during my Grandmother's stay, multiple women from the nursing staff were arrested for taking the patient's prescription medication and 'spiking' each other's drinks while on duty at Bridebrook.

The one nice thing I have to say about this place, is that there was a very nice man who bathed my Grandmother regularly. He was extremely nice, and took the time to speak with her and treat her like a human being.

Otherwise, this facility should be shut down. My family complained to a company who handles general complaints about rehab facilities such as Bridebrook, but I don't know how effective this is.

The main points that I highlighted are just the major issues. There were dozens of other issues (my Grandmother hated fish, but was served fish regularly, items of hers were stolen -i.e. rosary beads, clothing, candy-, Bridebrook hired an ambulance service to transport my Grandmother to her doctors appointments after telling us that her insurance would cover it, when in actuality insurance did not and we were left with extremely expensive ambulance bills when we could have transported her ourselves, etc.)

Bottom line is, my Grandmother left this facility with a somewhat healed bone, but overall in worse health than before. Please, do not go here. It's not as if my Grandmother had a few bad incidents throughout the months that she stayed at this facility - the awful experiences were daily. I can't imagine the type of care the patient's receive who don't have a family that can visit every few hours each day. We were my Grandmother's voice, and fought for her to be treated well. That's all that we wanted - quality care. Not one day did she receive this.