1 Star User Review
This is a mixed review of this facility and I will begin with the positives.
I commend the admissions coordinator for working diligently to get my mother into Plantation Bay as this was not an easy task. I was very pleased with the efforts made by the admissions coordinator and would like to say she is a very lovely and friendly lady. The daytime front desk lady is also very nice, friendly and warm and she works very hard at what she does. I never got to meet the Social Services coordinator but did speak to her on the phone and she too is very nice, friendly and personable.
The facility is a nice, very clean and modern facility even though the phone system is antiquated. There doesn't seem to be a way to leave a voice mail message for anyone and the front desk people have to always take a message.
The facility has a lot of large windows and I believe this is very important in a nursing home and also, it doesn't have that smell associated with most nursing homes I've been inside of.
Now for the negative.
My mother was at the facility for ten days for respite care so that I could take a very much needed break. My mother has end stage dementia, she cannot walk nor can she stand up on her own. My mother is unable to ask for what she wants and needs and she is unable to express her feelings.
The very first afternoon when I took my mother to the facility, the admissions coordinator was gone for the day and no one seemed to know what room my mother was supposed to be in. Someone finally took us to the room and almost immediately, the CNA tried to put my mother into bed. It wasn't time for my mom to go to bed and when I asked the CNA why she was trying to put my mom in bed, the CNA became insulted and huffed out of the room. This is the way it started out and it went downhill from there.
The evening nurse however was very nice and we sat down and went over everything pertaining to my mother. I asked that my mother be fed dinner so the CNA brought my mom a tray. I apologized to the CNA for being short with her and all was good after that.
I put my mother's things away and went home. I returned the very next day to sign papers with the admissions coordinator then went to see my mom. Before I went in however, I received a call from the day nurse telling me that my mother had fallen out of her wheelchair but she wasn't injured. I told the nurse to put her seat belt on and I was told that they aren't allowed to restrict the patients/residents. Soooo… I suppose it's alright to allow them to fall out of their wheelchairs and split their heads open?
When I went to the facility and after signing the papers I went to see my mother and saw that the seat belt was locked around her waist. I then went to her room and saw that she only had one thin blanket on her bed and her bed was right next to the air conditioning unit. I asked for more blankets and was assured she would get them but she never did even after I called numerous times requesting them.
The weekend came and I went to see my mother again and to get her laundry. I had provided plenty of clothes for her but for some reason there were a lot of dirty clothes in the closet. I noticed an entire bag of clothes missing. Not dirty but completely gone. I inquired about the bag but no one seemed to know what I was talking about. Great.
I looked at the supplies I had taken to the facility originally for my mother and noticed that they hadn't been touched. My mother wears a pad in her diaper all of the time because she is incontinent but none of the pads had been used. I also brought a certain number of denture tablets to use in the denture cup and they were all still there, none missing. The toothbrush and toothpaste was in the exact same spot where I had left them and I know they had not been used on my mother.
I spoke to the nurse about this and I spoke to the CNA about this but no one would take responsibility and no one would give me any answers. I asked if and when my mother had been bathed and again, no one seemed to know.
I returned to the facility the very next day with my mother's clean laundry and again asked these very same questions and again, no answers. I took my mom to the day area and while sitting with her I noticed that her face was red and when I felt her, she was hot. I notified the nurse who attempted to take my mother's temperature but couldn't for some reason. We took my mom to her room and put her to bed, the nurse put a cold cloth on my mom's head and told the CNA to take her temperature. (?)
The nurse gave my mom some Tylenol and as it turned out, my mom had a fever. My mother only gets a fever for two reasons. She either has a cold which she didn't have OR, she has a urinary tract infection. I have been my mother's caregiver for six years and I know when she has a UTI. I'm sure she had one. The nurse assured me she would send my mother's urine out to the lab to be tested. This never happened as I found out the day my mom left.
No urinalysis done and no antibiotics given.
Again I asked about the bag of clothes and after about an hour, the manager on duty approached me and said she found it in an office. She told me she couldn't give it to me however and I would have to return on Monday to get it. I wasn't allowed to take the shirts that I paid for. Why not?
The shirts I brought are long sleeve t-shirts with the ends of the sleeves sewn shut. My mother wears them to bed and they are sewn shut because my mom on occasion, digs in her diaper at night and creates a huge bio-hazard mess. Sewing the sleeves prevents this from happening.
The facility would not allow my mother to wear her night shirts because they claim that it restricts the patient/resident. Soooo… restrict the patient/resident from digging feces out of their pants but allow them to wear a thin hospital gown so they CAN dig in the feces out of their pants, smear it all over the place and possibly put it in their mouths. (?)
Another odd restriction they have over there is a no-bib policy. My mother is a messy eater and she wears a bib at home to protect her clothes from being soiled and stained with food. Because of the no-bib policy, every one of my mother's tops are stained. The reason for the no-bib policy is to protect the patient/resident's dignity. Soooo….it's okay for the patient/resident to have food stains all over their clothes, chunks of food all down their shirts and this does what for their dignity?
So far I learned about three of their restrictive policies. No seat belts, no restrictive clothing and no bibs. There is no telling what other policies they have.
Okay so yesterday was my mom's last day at the facility and prior to picking her up I called over there and asked if they would give my mom a bath and wash her hair. This wasn't done. When I went over to the facility and saw my mother, she was sitting in her wheelchair in her room facing the window. I smelled her hair and it did not smell like her shampoo. It smelled dirty. I packed up my mother's belongings and while doing so, took an inventory of her things. My mom has to be catheterized twice a day, once in the morning and once at night to prevent UTI's.
I brought enough catheters for ten days plus two. Almost all of them were still there. I also once again looked at the denture tablets and all of the ones I brought ten days prior were still there, never opened. The toothbrush and toothpaste were still in the same exact position where I had left it.
My mom is under Hospice care and they provided an ambulance to take my mother home for me. While waiting, I signed my mom out, signed for her medications, etc. and asked the nurse about my mother's urine test. He didn't know anything about it and after looking in the computer and even calling the lab he told me that the test was never ordered. Nice.
Fast forward to my mother at home:
After my mom got home I took her to her bedroom and undressed her to give her a much needed bath and to wash her stinky hair. I discovered that my mother had bruises on the toes on her right foot which is odd because my mom can't walk nor stand up. There is also a big red and blue bruise above her left elbow which I suppose happened when the facility lost the arm pad on her wheelchair. Under my mother's left breast is a very red, very 'angry' looking, weeping open rash that I am sure is painful. I took photos of all of these things.
Later on that evening when I put my mom to bed for the night I had her take out her dentures like she has done for years. OH.MY.GOD. Words cannot describe just how disgusting my mom's dentures were. They were SO bad that I threw up a little in my own mouth. I am glad I had on gloves because they were so slimy they would have slipped out of my hand. My mother's dentures were completely CAKED with food, they were covered in some whitish color slime and the smell simply gagged me. It took me quite a while to brush and sanitize my mom's dentures and it only proved that NO ONE in that facility had EVER removed my mother's dentures. I knew they hadn't soaked them because as I said, none of the denture tablets were used.
I was absolutely horrified at what was on those dentures and I feared looking at my mother's natural teeth she has. It was worse than I had imagined. Her teeth were just as bad if not worse than the dentures.
I felt so sorry for my mother for being so neglected at the hands of people who are BEING PAID to take care of people like my mom. I feel sorry for the rest of the people who are forced to live in this facility. How DARE they neglect my mom the way they did!
I want to add that I put in a call to the Director of Nursing at the facility and she promised she would call me back as soon as she had my mom's chart in front of her. This was yesterday. It is the end of the day now and I still haven't received a call from her. I don't expect I will.
Because of all of the neglect and lack of care given to my mother I decided to file several complaints. I contacted my local Ombudsman agency, I contacted the Department of Children and Families and I contacted AHCA. An agent with DCF came to my house today and took my complaint. She assured me she would investigate this matter and get back to me.
My next complaint will be to my attorney.
Do your loved one and yourself a favor. Do NOT put them in this facility if you love them. Believe me when I tell you that not even a dog deserves to be placed there. Maybe they don't have restrictions against dogs.